THE ARCHITECT

Two weeks before her final exams to become an architect, a Boston woman is offered an amazing professional opportunity that comes at a shockingly steep price.

The good news for Sloane Connolly is that an anonymous client of suavely insinuating attorney Patrick Tempter is willing to pay through the nose for her to design a memorial to six people. His staggering offer includes a brand-new office for Sloane and an all-expenses-paid cross-country trip for her to unearth information about the six honored souls. The so-so news is that the client refuses to identify the six honorees until Sloane has signed a contract and won’t reveal his own identity even then. The terrible news is that shortly after Sloane’s single mother, prickly Maeve O’Connor, vanishes and police find her car and a pair of her shoes abandoned in Northfield, Massachusetts, Sloane’s ex-boyfriend Roger, not one to take his dismissal lightly, begins carpet-bombing her with demands that she meet and talk with him and escalating threats of what will happen if she doesn’t. That makes it a perfect time for Sloane to elude Roger by flying all over the place to dig up details about academic Lawrence Miner, model Wendy Wilson, nurse Elizabeth Anderson, tech entrepreneur Martin Barrett, counselor Michael Smithson, and insurance broker Ted Hillary, all of whom turn out to have met suspicious deaths. Sloane’s fast-moving investigation in the first half of this overextended thriller sets a high bar that the second half, which unsurprisingly links the commission to Sloane’s troubled family history, can’t meet. Readers who don’t share Katzenbach’s appetite for philosophizing about murder can safely skip the last 50 pages.

Fans are guaranteed to enjoy the ride as long they don’t ask awkward questions like “Huh?” afterward.