The First to Lie

Starred review from June 1, 2020
In this stellar standalone from five-time Agatha Award winner Ryan (The Murder List), broadcast journalist Elle Berensen relishes her first assignment for Boston’s startup Channel 11—proving that a much touted drug made by the pharmaceutical company Pharminex can make women barren. Elle wants to ferret out the information with facts and ethical journalism, but Meg Weest, her new, overly enthusiastic assistant, is consumed by the story. Lacking scruples, Meg will go to any lengths, including lying, cheating, and violence, to usurp Elle and humiliate the family who own Pharminex. Elle has to wonder whether security agents for Pharminex have uncovered her investigation after her home is broken into and she’s followed a couple of times. Meanwhile, confident Nora Quinn, the drug firm’s newest pharmaceutical sales representative, who visits doctors’ offices and chats with patients in waiting rooms, has her own agenda. The breathlessly energetic plot touches on corporate intrigue, journalism ethics, revenge, and the corrosive nature of lies. Ryan could win a sixth Agatha with this one. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co.

July 1, 2020
Investigative television reporter Ellie Berenson is working the story of a lifetime: Boston pharmaceuticals giant, Pharminex, is pushing off-label use of its drug Monifan for fertility treatments, calculating that payoffs to women rendered permanently infertile by a rare side effect won't impact profits. When Pharminex announces the upcoming launch of a new philanthropic fund, Ellie is forced to pull her story together quickly while hiding her ethically challenged undercover gig as a Pharminex sales rep. The sudden assignment of a new producer, Meg, complicates things. Meg, also Ellie's new neighbor, is everywhere, inserting herself in the investigation and even losing a key interview with a victim of the drug. When a woman Ellie befriended in a clinic's waiting room and a fellow Pharminex coworker are killed in identical car accidents, she discovers that no one in this story's web, including her new ally, handsome crusading attorney Gabe, can be taken at face value. Some convenient character connections require a little suspended disbelief, but this story pays off with page-turning drama and mind-twisting deception.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2020

A five-time Agatha Award winner whose shelves groan with the 34 Emmys and 14 Edward R. Murrow awards she has won for her reporting, Ryan conjures a stand-alone thriller featuring a protagonist willing to secure justice even if it means spilling some ugly family secrets. Unfortunately, she doesn't know that others are just as interested in helping her secure revenge. This ending could be bloody.

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