The A List

3.5 stars

A pretty good mystery/thriller.

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author. The book is #14 in the series, but there was enough backstory that I didn’t feel too lost. The story itself is a standalone one, so a reader definitely wouldn’t miss out on anything if they wanted to pick up this book but had never read any of the previous thirteen books.

Part of the book is told in the present (for the book anyway) and part of it is told in flashbacks. This device works fairly well. In present day Ali Reynolds is remarried and living in Sedona, AZ. She and her husband own a cybersecurity company. Ten years before, while working as a reporter, she did a human interest piece regarding a mother with a dying son in desperate need of a kidney. She pleads for someone to come forward that may have used the same fertility clinic where her son was conceived in the hopes that her son had a sibling out there somewhere. Not only is her plea answered, the half sibling could be her son’s twin. After some extensive investigation, the parents uncover a medical scandal that takes down a prominent doctor, Edward Gilchrist, and lands him in prison for life for murder.

Years later, Gilchrist decides he’s not going to be the only person that suffers and decides to create an annihilation list – his “A List” – of everyone that contributed to his downfall. He is intent on making the people on his list pay for his downfall, and enlists several people to aid him in this endeavor. Included on this list is Ali Reynolds.

The book is fairly well-written, but the premise of the story itself is not very original and the “mystery” is not very mysterious. The plot is pretty predictable and I knew early in the book what the major plot twists would be and how it would end. That said, it was still an enjoyable read.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.