Poisonous

February 29, 2016
At the outsetof Brennan’s well-crafted third novel featuring investigative reporter Maxine “Max” Revere (after 2015’s Compulsion), Max, the host of a criminal justice TV program, Maximum Exposure, and her assistant, David Kane, make a preliminary trip to Corte Madera, Calif., to determine whether a cold case merits coverage. The deceased, teen Ivy Lake, had a reputation as an Internet bully, and some believe that she drove a high school classmate to suicide. Ivy’s developmentally challenged stepbrother, 18-year-old Tommy Wallace, wants answers. Local detective Grace Martin has a long suspect list, but no solid evidence to act upon. Grace cooperates with Max in hopes the show’s resources will shed some new light on Ivy’s murder. Max’s communication skills and passionate outspoken personality can serve her as strengths and weaknesses, both in the investigation and in her relationships with David and her lover, Det. Nick Santini. Readers may not like Max, but they will admire her. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House.

February 15, 2016
Brennan (No Good Deed, 2015, etc.) trots out her newest character, muckraking investigative reporter Maxine "Max" Revere, who's back in California to solve another crime. Max hosts a cable television news show a la Nancy Grace, only Max has red hair and more money than Queen Elizabeth. Along with her BFF and bodyguard, gay former Special Forces soldier David Kane, she sets her sights on a small town called Corte Madera, where a teenager named Ivy Lake went over a cliff. Much despised by everyone who knew her, Ivy was the town cyberbully. She posted nastiness about everyone from one end of the Web to the other, even sparking the suicide of a young woman who--when her sex tape surfaced, courtesy of the rich, spoiled Ivy--couldn't handle the gossip. Since the police are at a standstill in their investigation (as they always are in Brennan's world), Max steps in to save the day while also working through her ongoing dilemma of how much to trust her boyfriend, gorgeous cop Nick Santini, who replaced her former lover, gorgeous agent Marco Lopez. Both men are head over heels about Max, while she (though conflicted) puts her work first. When she arrives in town at the behest of Tommy Wallace, Ivy's mentally challenged stepbrother, Max steps into her usual snake pit of a couple dozen suspects and plenty of time to reflect on everything from her privileged upbringing to her friendship with David. Brennan is true to form here, with a waterfall of named characters, complicated relationships, and an inept police department that virtually hands the investigation over to Max. But the shocking revelations keep coming long after readers have stopped caring about the villainous Ivy, and, as in all Max Revere outings, the dialogue is regrettable at best. This novel, aptly named, won't win Brennan new fans but will doubtless please established ones.

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March 15, 2016
Investigative journalist Max Revere and her assistant, David Kane, leave New York City and head to California in the third installment of Brennan's popular suspense series. The Corte Madera police never caught the person who pushed high-school student Ivy Lake off a cliffperhaps because the suspect list was too long, thanks to Ivy's habit of using social media to humiliate anyone to whom she took a passing dislike. She seemed to particularly enjoy mocking her socially awkward and perhaps developmentally delayed stepbrother, Tommy. Yet it's Tommy who asks Max to investigate the case. Tommy's stepmother thinks Tommy had something to do with Ivy's death and has forbidden him from seeing his other stepsiblings. As Max and David dig deeper into all the lives that Ivy's cyberbullying touched, one surprising suspect emerges as the real killer. Fans of fast-paced thrillers will enjoy watching Max shuffle her suspect list as new information is revealed, and use her investigative skills to isolate the killer. Recommend this series to fans of Sandra Brown and Jan Burke.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)