Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen, Gary Braver

From New York Times bestseller Tess Gerritsen and acclaimed thriller writer Gary Braver comes a sexy murder mystery about a reckless affair and dangerous secrets. Taryn Moore is young, beautiful, and brilliant...so why would she kill herself? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl's fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there's more to the story. Her instincts are confirmed when surprise information is revealed that could have been reason enough for Taryn's suicide-or a motive for her murder. To English professor Jack Dorian, Taryn was the ultimate fantasy: intelligent, adoring, and completely off limits. But there was also a dark side to Taryn, a dangerous streak that threatened those she turned her affections to-including Jack. And now that she's dead, his problems are just beginning. After Frankie uncovers a trove of sordid secrets, it becomes clear that Jack may know the truth. He is guilty of deception, but is he capable of cold-blooded murder? Editorial Reviews A seamless collaboration between authors Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver...this is a seductive shapeshifter of a novel, full of flashbacks and revelations. -The Wall Street Journal With deceitful characters and plenty of twists, this novel is highly recommended for fans of Gerritsen or Braver, and readers who love suspense stories. -Library Journal (starred review) An emotionally charged page-turner that will definitely keep readers guessing, Choose Me has all of the twists and turns in the right places. Gerritsen and Braver are definitely the co-writing dynamic duo to look out for! -Mystery & Suspense Magazine In just 320 pages, Gerritsen and Braver manage to weave a tale so sordid, so shocking, that you can't stop reading. Whether you need a solid beach read this summer or you need something for a long flight or road trip, Choose Me is the perfect choice. -Culturess Pop culture-wise, Choose Me packs the same wallop as films like Body Heat and Fatal Attraction. At heart, though, it's also a kind of throwback to the brilliant work of James M. Cain in books like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Labels aside, this is flat-out great reading entertainment. -The Providence Journal Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver win my vote for offering the most disturbing novel of the summer, crafting the story of an affair that leads to murder...[A]n unsettling tragedy that will claim you until the last page. -The Mountain Times These veteran mystery novelists have a few new tricks up their sleeves. -Toronto Star Choose Me is a whirlwind with sharp, fluid prose and fine depth of character, telling an age-old story with powerful and timely relevancy. Told from alternating perspectives, the story is chilly, creepy, nuanced, layered, a puzzler of the first order, and-above all-poignant. This story will hit home for many. Gerritsen and Braver really nailed this one. -David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author A spellbinding mystery. Gerritsen and Braver's expert storytelling is on full display. -Karin Slaughter, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Don't miss this edgy, twisting, rocket-paced story of marriage, betrayal, and the damage we do to each other in the name of love. -Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions on the 7:45 - From the Publisher 05/03/2021 The death of Taryn Moore, a senior at Boston's Commonwealth University, whose shattered corpse is found on the street outside her apartment building, drives this so-so thriller from bestseller Gerritsen (the Rizzoli & Isles series) and Braver (Tunnel Vision). When Boston PD Det. Frankie Loomis investigates, her partner concludes that Taryn jumped, but Frankie is less sure, and her instincts are validated by an autopsy that suggests Taryn was injured before she fell from her fifth-floor residence. The police probe alternates with flashbacks that support both the possibility of suicide and of homicide. After Taryn is dumped by her boyfriend, she responds by sleeping with her married literature professor, who's teaching a seminar on star-crossed lovers and has been accused of inappropriate behavior toward a female student. Implausibly, a distinguished scholar asks Taryn to coauthor a paper after a brief conversation, and her application to the doctoral program is so strong that the graduate committee waives the deadline requirement. The characters are tissue-thin, and the telegraphed ending won't surprise most readers. These authors have done better on their own. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (July) - Publishers Weekly *06/04/2021 Authors Gerritsen (the TV-adapted Rizzoli & Isles series) and Braver (Tunnel Vision) collaborate on a suspenseful mystery that begins with the apparent suicide of Taryn Moore, a senior at Commonwealth University. Boston PD detective Frances Frankie Loomis has seen many suicides, but Taryn's is different. The clues don't add up--Taryn's missing cell phone, warmed-up dinner still in the microwave, and acceptance letter to grad school make Frankie want to dig deeper. Flashbacks show Taryn following her high school love to college, then stalking him after a painful but inevitable breakup. She shifts her attention to Jack Dorian, her married literature professor who has been helping her get into grad school. Jack feels neglected in his marriage and doesn't try to stop Taryn's advances, but soon he feels guilty and decides to end the affair. Taryn has other plans. When an autopsy shows that Taryn was pregnant when she died and had been injured prior to her fall, Frankie is convinced that she was murdered, but by whom? VERDICT With deceitful characters and plenty of twists, this novel is highly recommended for fans of Gerritsen or Braver, and readers who love suspense stories.--Joni Gheen, LadyJ's Bookish Nook, McConnelsville, OH - Library Journal Narrator Kirsten Potter meets the challenge of voicing this combination police procedural/domestic suspense with a strong #MeToo theme. Tess Gerritsen, bestselling author of the Rizzoli and Isles series, has teamed up with Gary Braver, pen name for English professor Gary Goshgarian, to write this stand-alone. Potter gives strong Boston accents to two police detectives who are called to the scene of the apparent suicide of college senior Taryn Moore. The story has frequent flashbacks to the time before Taryn's death, in which listeners hear directly from Taryn and her advisor, Professor Jack Dorian. As Potter effectively delivers the internal emotions of the key characters, an engaging listen with disturbing themes unfolds. E.Q. AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine - JUNE 2021 - AudioFile 2021-02-10 In their first collaboration, veterans Gerritsen and Braver unfold a painful, and painfully familiar, fable of adultery and its fatal consequences. The tale begins with the death of one of its principals: Commonwealth University senior Taryn Moore, whose ruined body is found on the sidewalk five floors beneath her Boston apartment. Detective Frances Loomis, who catches the case, wonders why Taryn, a beautiful, accomplished student who worked her way up from her mother's hardscrabble Maine household to be offered admission to Commonwealth, would have ended her life. Apart from some backbiting by jealous students, the only flaw Frankie can find in Taryn's litany of accomplishments is her recent breakup with Liam Reilly, the hometown boyfriend who'd joined her at Commonwealth. A series of alternating chapters, however, gradually reveal the grand passion in Taryn's life: her attachment to professor Jack Dorian, whose course in star-crossed lovers she's internalized to a dangerous degree. Even as she's pressing worshipful fellow student Cody Atwood to shadow Liam and tell her what he's been up to (no bombshells there), Taryn's falling under the spell of her charismatic teacher, who's feeling neglected because of the long hours his wife spends at Mount Auburn Hospital. The revelation that both his wife and his student are pregnant sends Jack spiraling into despair just as Frankie, back in the present, is absorbing the same news in the context of Taryn's death. The fate of this modern-day Heloise and Abelard unfolds with minimum surprise but maximum impact. - Kirkus Reviews