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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA Today Bestseller Lisa Scottoline, the #1 bestselling author of What Happened to the Bennetts, presents another pulse-pounding domestic thriller about family, justice, and the lies that tear us apart. TJ Devlin is the charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, all of whom are lawyers at their highly successful firm—except him. After a stint in prison and rehab for alcoholism, TJ can’t get hired anywhere except at the firm, in a make-work job with the title of investigator. But one night, TJ’s world turns upside down after his older brother John confesses that he murdered one of their clients, an accountant he’d confronted with proof of embezzlement. It seems impossible coming from John, the firstborn son and Most Valuable Devlin. TJ plunges into the investigation, seizing the chance to prove his worth and save his brother. But in no time, TJ and John find themselves entangled in a lethal web of deception and murder. TJ will fight to save his family, but what he learns might break them first.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA Today Bestseller Lisa Scottoline, the #1 bestselling author of What Happened to the Bennetts, presents another pulse-pounding domestic thriller about family, justice, and the lies that tear us apart. TJ Devlin is the charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, all of whom are lawyers at their highly successful firm—except him. After a stint in prison and rehab for alcoholism, TJ can’t get hired anywhere except at the firm, in a make-work job with the title of investigator. But one night, TJ’s world turns upside down after his older brother John confesses that he murdered one of their clients, an accountant he’d confronted with proof of embezzlement. It seems impossible coming from John, the firstborn son and Most Valuable Devlin. TJ plunges into the investigation, seizing the chance to prove his worth and save his brother. But in no time, TJ and John find themselves entangled in a lethal web of deception and murder. TJ will fight to save his family, but what he learns might break them first.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the cover
Chapter One
At first I thought I heard him wrong. It was impossible coming from John, my older brother, the firstborn son, the Most Valuable Devlin. Me, I'm the black sheep, the baby of the family, the charming disappointment. John was Class President, and I was Class Clown. He was Most Likely to Succeed, I was Most Likely to Get a Speeding Ticket. That's why I never expected him to confess to murder.
"What?" My mouth dropped open. "Did you just say you killed somebody?"
"Yes." My brother nodded, jittery. His blue eyes looked unfocused, which never happened. Lasers have nothing on John Devlin.
"That can't be. Not you. You're, like, the best-"
"I did it," John said, panicky. "I killed a man. TJ, what should I do?"
"How do I know? You're the lawyer." I didn't get it. John and everyone else in my family were lawyers in our family firm, Devlin & Devlin. I'm a convicted criminal. On second thought, maybe I would've asked me, too.
"God, no, I can't believe this." Tears filmed John's eyes, which surprised me. I didn't know he had any emotions except disapproval. We stood on the large flagstone patio overlooking the pool and pool house. When he'd taken me outside tonight, I thought he wanted the two grand I owed him.
"John, who did you . . . kill?"
"A client."
Yikes. I'm an investigator at the law firm. My family keeps me behind the scenes, but I don't need applause, just a paycheck. Being an ex-con doesn't pay as well as it should. "Tell me what happened."
"I don't know where to start. Oh God, this is awful." John grimaced, stricken. He ran his tongue over his lips. "Okay, well, we were at the corporate center, Knickerbocker Quarry. I hit him with a rock-"
"A rock?" What is this, summer camp? "Why? When?"
"Less than an hour ago. I came directly here."
Meanwhile there was no blood on him. Only my brother could kill somebody with a rock and not get dirty. His silk tie was spotless and his Brioni suit fit him like Batman. "How did you beat him with a rock and-"
"I didn't beat him. I threw the rock and it hit him in the head. I heard a crack . . ." John's upper lip curled with disgust. "Then he dropped."
I figured it was his fastball. John pitched for Villanova, where every Devlin but me went to college. "Then what happened?"
"I came here. I knew Nancy and everybody would be waiting. I panicked." John raked a hand through thinning brown hair. He was forty years old but looked fifty and usually acted eighty, but not tonight.
"Okay, let's go. We have to do something with the body."
John recoiled. "Like what?"
"Bury it?" Isn't that why you're telling me?
"TJ, no, we can't. I don't know what to do." John rubbed his face. "We can't leave now. You know how Dad is about his birthday."
I glanced through the window to the dining room, where dinner was just getting underway. My mother was setting an antipasto platter on the table, and my father stood talking with my sister, Gabby, and her husband, Martin. John's wife, Nancy, sat with my little nephew, Connor, who was playing with a Matchbox Jaguar I'd brought him. My father's birthday was a national holiday in our house. Christmas never had it so good.
John straightened, blinking. "TJ, I can't live with this. I'm coming clean. I'm going to tell-"
"No, stop." I grabbed him by his hand-stitched lapel. "You'll go to prison."
"I deserve to."
"You can't handle it."
"You did."
"That's how I know you can't."
"I can if you can."
My brother is crazy competitive. If he'd been in the Donner party, he would've pigged...
Reviews-
October 1, 2023
The only Devlin not serving as a lawyer in the eponymous family firm (owing to alcohol issues and previous imprisonment), T.J. is instead the resident investigator and must act quickly when his brother kills a client in self-defense in the Edgar Award--winning Scottoline's The Truth About the Devlins. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2023 Library Journal
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 22, 2024 A wealthy Philadelphia family’s dysfunction threatens to undo them in the engrossing latest from Scottoline (What Happened to the Bennetts). Married attorneys Paul and Marie Devlin work beside their two eldest children and fellow lawyers, John and Gabrielle, at their esteemed family firm. TJ, the youngest Devlin, is a recovering alcoholic with a criminal record who works as the firm’s informal “investigator,” spending most of his days doing busywork to keep him out of trouble. When John tells TJ he may have accidentally killed a client one night, a shocked TJ agrees to help his brother avoid arrest. As TJ digs deeper into the client’s death, however, he uncovers his siblings’ involvement in a vast pharmaceutical conspiracy that puts his safety and sobriety at risk. Scottoline successfully anchors the story’s legalese and shady pharma dealings in TJ’s personal struggles, wringing real emotion from his gradual realization that, while he may be the Devlins’ black sheep, he’s far from the family’s most amoral member. The midsection sags a bit, but for the most part, this is a ripping blend of legal and family drama. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.
February 1, 2024 Philadelphia's Devlin & Devlin law firm wields considerable influence thanks to married founding attorneys Paul and Marie Devlin. But beneath the surface, the family is struggling: the firm's investigator, TJ, is a recovering alcoholic and felon; golden-boy attorney John is hiding dangerous secrets; and their sister Gabby has her hands full playing family peacemaker and pro bono crusader. The fa�ade cracks after John demands that TJ help him cover up an accidental murder. John claims that he was forced to defend himself after confronting a thief who was embezzling from a longtime client. When he and TJ return to the scene, the thief, apparently somehow alive, is gone. Days later, the embezzler is found murdered in his car. John clearly knows more than he's telling, but diverts suspicion by framing TJ and discrediting him with accusations that he has relapsed. With homicide investigators circling, TJ hits the trail of the killers who are lining up their next shot at the Devlins. Here, the tense mystery plays out as a catalyst for redemption and family healing--Scottoline's heart-warming specialty.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A new family thriller by best-selling Scottoline is automatically a must-have.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
February 1, 2024 The ne'er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren't exactly the upstanding citizens they appear. The first 35 years in the life of Thomas "TJ" Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who's been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie's then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier--until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John's way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can't trust anything his brother has said since he's fallen off the wagon. TJ, who's maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you'll have a much better time than TJ. As an adjunct member says, "You're not a family, you're a force." Exactly, though not in the way you'd expect.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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