Some Answers Are ‘Worth Killing For’ in Jane Haseldine’s New Mystery [REVIEW]

Determined to solve the mystery of her past once and for all, crime reporter Julia Gooden won’t stop digging until she discovers the truth about her brother’s disappearance in Jane Haseldine’s Worth Killing For. (Photo courtesy Pexels)

A young man is brutally murdered and another man seems to have been raised from the dead. Now a tenacious Detroit crime reporter is about to discover that these two incidents may be linked to her own traumatic past and to the one case she’s never been able to reconcile. But at what cost will she pursue the truth? Find out in Jane Haseldine’s nail-biting new mystery, Worth Killing For. 

Kensington

Reporter Julia Gooden hasn’t had an easy go of it. Lately, however, life has been a bit kinder to her. She’s got a hot cop boyfriend, two beautiful sons, and an enviable career as one of the top journalists in Detroit. Even so, the events of her past are never far from her mind.

Raised in poverty by a hustler father and a drunken mother, she relied heavily on her big brother Ben to protect her from the ugliness of life when she was a mere seven years old. After her parents died and her brother disappeared, however, life as she knew it quickly disintegrated from bad to worse and suddenly she and her older sister found themselves being raised by a relative who didn’t want them. Somehow though, Julia managed to survive and build a life for herself while her sister seemed bent on self-destruction.

Now, thirty years later, Julia’s father, Duke, suddenly appears in Detroit, just as she is assigned to cover the murder of a city councilman’s young nephew. Torn between covering one of the biggest stories of the year and trying to figure out how her dad has miraculously reappeared, she soon finds herself entering dangerous territory. As she chases down one lead after another, all of them seem to lead back to the father she tried hard to forget and to the very answers she needs most desperately to know.

Worth Killing For is a carefully crafted, suspense drenched, emotionally charged thriller that only a skilled wordsmith like Jane Haseldine could deliver. Here she proves that it takes a spectacularly talented writer with strong journalistic instincts to create this rich tapestry of terror readers will find themselves unable to resist.

Using unwavering insight, Haseldine weaves authentic, flawed, but deeply relatable characters together with carefully drawn settings, rich back stories, and heart-wrenching emotion to create a mystery that is impossible to put down. Flawless in its execution, this story reminds me why I’ve been a fan of the genre ever since I read my first Agatha Christie novel decades ago. But unlike Christie, Haseldine gives us more than just a whodunnit, this is an unflinching look into the fractured heart of a family and an examination of the kaleidoscopic dreams of a woman who has sought her entire life to make sense of the tragic past and the harsh circumstances she was born into.

Worth Killing For does what so many great American novels sets out to do. It reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit and deftly proves that regardless of our past circumstances, we can conquer our demons. In fact, happiness, grace and redemption can be ours if we only have the tenacity and the courage to reach out and take them. Don’t miss this triumphant, moving, and suspenseful new read from the author of Duplicity. Jane Haseldine is an author to watch!

Jane Haseldine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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.

WORTH KILLING FOR
By Jane Haseldine
352 pgs. Kensington. $26.

Purchase Worth Killing For at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, or Kobo.