Beach Wedding

Having moved from Hamptons townie to hedge-fund millionaire, Tom Rourke spares no expense for his wedding; the mansion where it is held rents for “five” a month—that’s five hundred thousand dollars. Tom’s brother Terry, a Philly police officer, and his family are a bit exhausted by it all but doing their best to relax into the pampering. Those plans are upended when Terry is drawn back into a past injustice. The father of the Rourke clan was the head assistant DA for the county when Noah Sutton, a member of the local elite, was murdered. The man’s wife, Hailey, was brought to trial, a case that drew even international attention and ended with the Rourkes as local outcasts. Terry seeks to make locals eat their words and to find justice for the murdered man, a mission that puts him and his family in danger and takes twists that will keep readers puzzled till the satisfying, unexpected conclusion. Ledwidge (coauthor with James Patterson of Now You See Her and The Quickie) shines in portraying the simmering culture clash that is life in rich towns as well as the best parts—love, humor, protectiveness—of life in close clans. The Patterson connection sells this, but it’s also good for fans of Jane Harper’s The Survivors, which features a long-ago killing in a Tasmanian beach town.