Jane Haseldine’s ‘Duplicity’ Explodes with Malice [REVIEW]

A reporter will stop at nothing to get her story in Jane Haseldine’s Duplicity. (Photo by Emilie Barbier, Flickr)

What do you get when you cross The Good Wife, Criminal Minds,  and the 2009 film, State of Play? The answer may very well be Jane Haseldine’s Duplicity, an engaging new thriller that blends taut suspense, riveting characters, heinous crime, family drama and professional journalism into one compelling read. 

Kensington

Meet Detroit-based crime reporter Julia Gooden. With a rocky marriage, two kids and a tragic past, she already has plenty to complicate her life. Now she’s covering the Nick Rossi trial, tenaciously looking for a new angle for her story while working to beat the competition to publication.

Her marriage to the assistant district attorney, David Tanner, is still on the mend. Although he could give her the inside scoop on the story if he wanted to, he has flatly refused to do so. She’ll have to find her sources elsewhere, and even then she has to decide whether or not to publish information that could hurt her husband’s case.

Although the story is already rife with tension, both domestically and politically, Haseldine cranks up the heat until the air literally explodes with malice when a bomb goes off in the courthouse. The bomb claims several victims, including the prosecution’s key witness, and injures David.

Sure that Rossi is behind the attack, Julia teams up with Detective Raymond Navarro to construct a story of blackmail, payback and political ambition. But at what cost? Will she make it out the other side unscathed? And more importantly, will her family?

Duplicity is the kind of story that should make authors like John Grisham, Scott Turow and Allison Leotta nervous, because Haseldine is making her mark on their territory. In Jane Gooden she has created an authentic heroine with plenty of faults, an overabundance of courage, a muckraker’s tenacity, and a mother’s angst.  In short, she’s someone readers will easily come to care about and root for, warts and all.

I also love how she utilizes Detroit, a city trying to rise from ruin like a mythical phoenix, as a character all its own. She does a stellar job describing Motor City, and we can almost hear the city’s heart start to beat once again as she writes about its streets and the people who live there.

Most of all, however, I admire the way Haseldine uses Gooden’s internal conflict and her family’s day-to-day domesticity to build suspense. Although writers like Mary Higgins Clark and Joy Fielding have done this for years, Haseldine still manages to carve out her own niche as a fiction writer, using these tried-and-true tools to craft a story that is fresh, vibrant and relevant. She’s a solid writer, and there is no doubt in my mind that Duplicity is only the second stepping stone to a long and prolific career as one of mystery fiction’s newest stars.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jane Haseldine

Jane Haseldine is a journalist, former crime reporter, columnist, newspaper editor, magazine writer, and deputy director of communications for a governor.

Jane graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a degree in journalism.

She resides in Southern California with her husband and two sons, but previously lived in Boston, San Francisco, New York, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana.

Visit her home on the Web at JaneHaseldine.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Goodreads and Twitter.

DUPLICITY
By Jane Haseldine
352 pgs. Kensington. $25.

You may purchase this book at one of these fine online retailers: Kensington Publishing Corporation, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.

Duplicity is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.