NECESSARY ENDS

Partners in work and life investigate the Hollywood crew that’s come to town.

When he’s first approached to reopen the Jessica Talbot murder, a cold case from years before, Trey Seaver isn’t having it. He’s certain former producer Nick Talbot killed his wife even though Nick ended up going free. Although Trey was the second to respond to the crime scene, his police days are far behind, and he has no interest in dredging up the past. But a threat on Nick’s life has made Trey a potential suspect, and he’s obligated if not blackmailed to look into the case with the help of Tai Randolph, his partner in all things (Reckoning and Ruin, 2016, etc.). Tai knows Trey to be an excellent reader of people, a human lie detector, and when Nick pleads his case as an innocent man, Trey believes him and agrees to do whatever it takes to clear his name. Tai and Trey attempt to go undercover on the local Atlanta set of Moonshine, which Nick’s working on along with writer Addison Canright, with whom Nick was cheating on Jessica and to whom he’s now engaged. Nick’s relationship with Addison is made even more complicated by his psychiatric history, which has led her to seek full conservatorship over him. Though Tai and Trey’s undercover work is an ill-kept secret, the two get plenty of interested parties to spill their guts in hopes of disclosing the truth. Surrounded by a set of trained actors, Trey’s difficulty in fingering the liar among the bunch makes him fear that his superpower may be dwindling. And Tai, who seems to think she’s the archetypal spirited Southern girl with a few tricks up her sleeve, doesn’t display the wit and verve that would make her a more appealing protagonist.

The Author’s Note and corresponding Pinterest board show Whittle’s painstaking commitment to the details of her heroine’s expensive La Perla lingerie and her hero’s Ferrari in an adventure aimed at those with similar aspirations.