WEB OF EVIL

A beset blogger seeks solace in cyberspace in this slapdash effort from bestseller Jance (Dead Wrong, 2006, etc.).

Up to now, Ali Reynolds, of Cutlooseblog.com, has been the designated caregiver for her unseen cyberfriends, but suddenly, she’s the one who needs emotional support. Not only does she face the challenge of divorcing a cheating husband, but the louse gets himself murdered, and Ali is labeled prime suspect. No way, chorus Cutloose fans. Way, counter the cops. She had motive and opportunity, they insist, even though these may strike readers who aren’t on Jance’s police force as thin and unconvincing. In self-defense, Ali turns detective, returning as a visitor to the house she once shared with TV exec Paul Reynolds before he became first a cheater, then a corpse. The chatelaine of the moment is beautiful, vapid young April Gaddis, eight months pregnant by Paul, who has her own reasons for being disenchanted with him—reasons the laggardly LAPD hasn’t bothered to examine. When April’s termagant mother meets an unlamented end, shoved down a staircase by person or persons unknown, the cops, indifferent to Ali’s alibi, like her for that one, too. Troubled and distracted, Ali still refuses to shirk her blogging responsibilities, checking in from time to time to reassure the good folks “only a click away” that “Cutloose is back in business.”

Plotloose.