Bad Blood

Literary agent Hornsley debuts with a shaky psychological thriller about a prosecutor whose latest case cuts uncomfortably close to home. Successful London criminal attorney Justine Stone’s chance at a plum assignment prosecuting a double homicide is nearly ruined when she recognizes the defendant as Jake Reynolds, her first love, who ghosted her years ago. Instead of recusing herself from the case, Justine returns to her and Jake’s hometown for the first time in nearly 20 years to see if she can dig up any clues. Staying with her distant mother, who sent Justine away after her father died, she pokes around Jake’s past until her older brother, Max, goes missing. Realizing that a decades-old secret might be behind both Jake’s case and Max’s disappearance, Justine scrambles to piece everything together before the trial begins. Unfortunately, Justine is a flat, tiresome character, and Hornsley places too much narrative stock in a series of predictable reveals. This misses the mark. Agent: Ginger Clark, Ginger Clark Literary. (July)