Family secrets will get out...And the ramifications get gruesome in Pretty Dead, the seventh Jack McMorrow Mystery. In this widely acclaimed addition to the popular series, veteran reporter Jack McMorrow and his partner Roxanne are sent to investigate the alleged physical abuse of a young daughter of a Boston blue blood family. The trappings of elite society threaten to sidetrack Jack’s investigation of the family’s misdoings, until a beautiful woman is found dead and the carefully constructed image of the family’s wealth and power begins to fray. Loyalties are tested and bonds are broken as Jack struggles with one of his most potent adversaries yet: his own ambition. **

From Publishers Weekly

Boyle is at the top of his form in his riveting seventh novel (after 2000's Cover Story) to feature Maine reporter Jack McMorrow. When Jack's significant other, social service worker Roxanne Masterson, investigates allegations of physical abuse concerning the young daughter of Boston bluebloods David and Maddie Connelly, Jack senses a shot at a story. And a story he gets, but not the one he'd figured on. Jack and Roxanne are invited to join staff members of the Sky Blue Foundation, an organization that distributes Connelly money to worthy causes, for a weekend retreat at the Connellys' Blue Harbor estate. There a beautiful young staff member steals the show, then winds up dead, leaving Jack and Roxanne to delve into all the unpleasant possibilities. Heavy muscle shows up to discourage Jack's search, while a phone message forces him to put his cards on the table and the Connellys to unveil a dark secret from the past that could destroy far more than the family image. In the end, Jack must decide just where to draw the line between his friendship with the Connellys and his responsibility as a journalist to write the truth. This whodunit is sure to win many new fans for Boyle, though it may take a nomination for a major mystery award to really put him on the map.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Kennedyesque shenanigans drive the latest entry in the long-running series featuring Jack McMorrow, the New York Times' even-keeled man in Maine. Jack stumbles onto a monster story when he gives his social-worker girlfriend, Roxanne, a ride to the coast. She's been called in to investigate the alleged physical abuse of a famous Boston couple's daughter. Even so, dashing David and Maddie Connelly soon suck Jack and Roxanne into their rarefied world with high-class hospitality, replete with yacht cruises and mansion stays. Unfortunately, a beautiful young employee of the Connelly charitable foundation soon turns up dead, perhaps murdered for rising too quickly from her working-class Beantown roots. Boyle deftly illustrates the nearly irresistible pull that wealth and power can have on us all, even as he keeps the conflicted Jack hard on the case. However, McMorrow is at least the second reporter in a crime novel this year to give away willingly a big scoop. That can make for a nice bittersweet finish to a book, but it happens in real life about as often as novelists throw away their advances. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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