CONFESSION

Jenny Cain is shocked by the appearance of David Mayer, who claims to be her policeman husband's son and wants him to help investigate his parent's alleged murder/suicide, until carefully placed clues lead them to another violent murder. 25,000 first printing.

Beginning with a nasty shock and ending with a nastier one, the ninth Jenny Cain mystery (after But I Wouldn't Want to Die There ) sets the plucky amateur sleuth from Port Frederick, Mass., on a complex, somewhat contrived, emotionally demanding course. One steaming August day, Jenny, recently resigned as director of a foundation, and her police lieutenant husband, Geof Bushfield, are visited at home by angry 17-year-old David Mayer, who announces that he is Geof's illegitimate son by Judy Mayer, a high school classmate of Geof's. The winter before, Judy, an invalid, had been killed by her husband Ron, who then committed suicide. David, foul-mouthed and hateful, demands that Geof reopen the case and prove the deaths were murders. Confessing to having had a one-night stand with Judy during high school, Geof readily, almost eagerly, accepts David's story; Jenny, however, is upset and skeptical. As the two of them investigate, dead animals appear around their house, and Dennis Clemmons, an ex-husband of Judy's, dies in suspicious circumstances. Judy proves to have been an expert, inveterate liar. The tension increases as videotapes--of Judy and Clemmons confessing to sins--lead Geof to a farm, a cult of flagellants and painful danger before the questions of young David's paternity--and Jenny's ambivalent responses--are finally put to rest. Author tour; Mystery Guild selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Pickard (The 27-Ingredient Chile Con Carne Murders, 1993, etc.) goes to the small city of Port Frederick, Mass., where police lieutenant Geoffery Bushfield and his wife, Jenny Cain, are visited by David Mayer, the volatile teenage son of Ron Mayer and Judy Baker, who accuses Geof of being his biological father. Months earlier, David's wheelchair-bound mother had been shot to death by her husband, who then killed himself. David is convinced they were murdered by someone else and persuades Geof to reopen the case, following up his visit with a series of vaguely threatening minor incidents. Geof concedes his paternity is possible, remembering a one-night stand with Judy. Her marriage to Ron, son of the prosperous, religious head of a family construction business, was interrupted by divorce and a brief, tumultuous marriage to no-good Dennis Clemmons, whose term in prison and abuse sent her back to Mayer. Clemmons, now incapacitated after a mysterious beating, still lives in town. He's one of the people Jenny talks to as she and Geof delve into the lives and strange religious practices of the Mayers and into Judy's unconventional upbringing. Shocking revelations abound as the old case is reshaped, a new killing must be solved, and Jenny and Geof's union is tested to the max in a freshly plotted, psychologically intriguing story. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The Agatha Award-winning author of Bum Steer and I.O.U. takes her turn at twisting a half-familiar plot line: a boy claiming to be the biological son of Massachusetts policeman Geof Bushfield turns up on his doorstep, asking that Bushfield investigate the murder/suicide of his parents.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Pickard just gets better and better. Her heroine, Jenny Cain, gains wisdom, depth, and strength of character, and Pickard's plots, never run-of-the-mill to begin with, are increasingly insightful, thoughtful, and provocative. It's no surprise, then, that Pickard's latest is her best yet. The story begins with a shocking discovery: Jenny's cop husband, Geof, is a father, thanks to a nearly forgotten one-night stand years ago that produced, unbeknownst to Geof, a now-teenage son named David. Geof is stunned, and Jenny is nearly apoplectic at the discovery. But a simple paternity case this ain't. David demands that Geof find out who killed his mom and the man he thought was his dad, even though their tragic deaths have been declared an open-and-shut murder/suicide. Neither Geof nor Jenny suspects that solving the case will mean not only facing a cult of religious fanatics who espouse a horrifying system of punishment and retribution, but also confronting a host of terrible secrets hidden in David's past. Fortunately, Geof and Jenny have a strong sense of humor, a sturdy marriage, plenty of common sense, and enough love to get them through one of the toughest tests they've faced together. Fine reading from an outstanding mystery writer. Emily Melton