Review: Truth Be Told by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Title: Truth Be Told   

Author: Hank Phillippi Ryan     

Series: Jane Ryland/Jake Brogan #3     

Published: October 2014, Forge Books  

Format: ARC E-book, 400 pages   

Source: Publisher  

Truth Be Told,
part of the bestselling Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan series by Agatha,
Anthony, Mary Higgins Clark, and Macavity Award-winning author Hank
Phillippi Ryan, begins with tragedy: a middle-class family evicted from
their suburban home. In digging up the facts on this heartbreaking
story—and on other foreclosures— reporter Ryland soon learns the truth
behind a big-bucks scheme and the surprising players who will stop at
nothing, including murder, to keep their goal a secret. Turns out,
there’s more than one way to rob a bank.

Boston police detective
Jake Brogan has a liar on his hands. A man has just confessed to the
famous twenty-year-old Lilac Sunday killing, and while Jake’s colleagues
take him at his word, Jake is not so sure. But he has personal reasons
for hoping they’ve finally solved the cold case.

Financial
manipulation, the terror of foreclosures, the power of numbers, the
primal need for home and family and love. What happens when what you
believe is true turns out to be a lie?

My thoughts: This is Hank Phillippi Ryan’s third book in her Jane Ryland/Jake Brogan series and I was thrilled to not only get an early copy at BEA this year, but also to see Hank herself. I had had the pleasure of first meeting Hank last year when she was on tour for her second book in the series, The Wrong Girl, and when I got to see her this year at BEA it was like meeting an old friend. She’s so personable and loves all her fans!!!

This latest installment in her series is another thrilling, edge of your seat read. This time around, we are thrown into the world of commercial banking and house foreclosures. As Jane is investigating this housing crisis, it starts to get even more interesting when dead bodies begin to show up in the empty houses. Jake, who is first called to investigate one of the houses, is just as quickly pulled off that case when another just as interesting case opens up – someone has confessed to a cold murder case that happened while his grandfather was on the force.

From there, things start to get tricky for Jane and Jake – but then again, when are they not? They find themselves once again having to walk a fine line between their professional and personal boundaries, and it doesn’t help when Peter Hardesty, a lawyer, ends up in the picture. Just what is his motivation? He’s involved with both the cases that Jane and Jake are working on and so is around at every turn. But, does he harbor more than just a working relationship with Jane? Of course, after a few miscommunications between Jane and Jake, what’s Jake to think.

There are three major storylines effortlessly woven together to this page-turner. There are lies, half-truths and bits of threads hanging for Jake and Jane, and even Peter Hardesty, to try to piece together in order to solve what is going on. And even what they think they know might not turn out to be truth after all.

I’ve read all three books in this series, and I think this might be the best one yet. Between the way everything comes together at the end and then the on-going development of Jane and Jake’s relationship, this is just a series that is not to be missed! Hank really knows how to build suspense and keep the reader hooked – her short chapters and mini-cliffhangers really keep you glued to those pages. My only complaint is that I now have to wait another year for the next book!

Books in this series:

1. The Other Woman
2. The Wrong Girl 
3. Truth Be Told