WE HAD A HUNCH

Three former teen sleuths unexpectedly reunite and revisit their shared pasts along with the horrific crime that changed their lives forever.

Twin sisters Alice and Samantha Van Dyne became the sensation of Edgar Mills, Massachusetts, when, as high schoolers, they helped their father, Police Chief Bill Van Dyne, crack a case involving drug smugglers. Their friend Joey O’Day joined them in notoriety when he used his computer skills to solve an internet scam. Then the twins tackled a case involving a serial killer dubbed “the Janitor” and became involved in a series of mishaps that led to the death of their father, leaving them permanently traumatized. In a narrative that moves between third-person accounts focused on each member of the trio, Ryan crafts a character-driven, deeply psychological narrative about loss, heartbreak, and redemption. Chapter One begins with Alice, who stayed on in Edgar Mills and married the brother of the high school sweetheart who was also one of the Janitor’s victims. Her sister, Samantha, became a reality-TV star in LA while Joey made his fortune in the Boston tech industry. When a Janitor-inspired murder in Edgar Mills makes national headlines 25 years later, Alice, Samantha, and Joey cross paths once again, not only with each other, but with the now-jailed Janitor, who claims he didn’t commit all the murders that were attributed to him back then. Inexorably drawn into a new investigation, the trio finds themselves forced to confront not only their roles in the first set of Janitor murders but also disturbing truths about themselves, their loved ones, and apparently innocent bystanders with agendas more shocking than any of them could imagine. Clever, tightly plotted, and complex, Ryan’s novel is as immersive as it is satisfying.

A fabulously twisting maze of murder, intrigue, and suspense.