Driving Lessons

As detective Katie Logan investigates an odd case in which sixteen-year-old Rebecca Patton, a student driver, runs down and kills a woman during a driving lesson, she discovers that the case may be more sinister than it appears when it turns out the victim had been the wife of the driving instructor in the car with Rebecca. Reprint.

When 16-year-old student driver Rebecca Patton hits a woman who steps off the curb into her path one afternoon in the town of River Close, Rebecca's driving instructor, Andrew Newell, is in big trouble. Though Newell passes a Breathalyzer test, he can barely stand on his feet and doesn't know his nameAhe's obviously high on something. So begins this riveting novella from one of America's finest crime writers. When the police question Newell, he denies taking any drugs and demands to see a lawyer. Will the authorities be able to test him for drugs before the evidence leaves his bloodstream? Meanwhile, the victim lies unidentified in critical condition at the local hospital. Then a witness returns to the accident scene and finds the woman's purse hanging in a tree. Just as the police learn from the victim's driver's license that she's Mary Beth Newell, the driving instructor's wife, word comes from the hospital that she's dead. McBain takes a fairly simple scenarioAwhat appears to be a case of vehicular manslaughterAand develops it into a complex tale of human frailty, with nary a wasted word. Detective Katie Logan later discovers that Mary Beth had just left the Roman Catholic church on the street where the car struck her. Father McDowell won't betray the confidences of the confessional, but his inadvertant admission that Mary Beth had problems is enough to put Logan on the guilty party's trail. The truth is as shocking as it is unexpected. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

While taking a driving lesson, Rebecca Patton has struck and badly injured a female pedestrian. Cops on the scene are shocked to find her instructor, Andrew Newell, apparently drunk and incoherent. The case that confronts Detective Katie Logan is more complex than it first appears. The victim, who dies from her injuries shortly after the accident, turns out to be the wife of the driving instructor. Should Newell be charged with vehicular homicide--the instructor is, by law, responsible for the vehicle--or perhaps murder one? But was he too drunk to plan, let alone execute, a complex hit-and-run scheme? As Logan pieces together the lives of the three principals, she begins to draw some surprising conclusions. McBain, who needs no introduction to mystery fans, once again showcases his extraordinary skills. He provides all the clues available to Detective Logan, but very few readers will have the insight to solve the case along with her. This compelling novella is the first to be published under the new imprint of longtime genre expert Otto Penzler. Wes Lukowsky
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