Girl Most Likely
by Max Allan Collins
Thomas & Mercer
School reunions can be fun or fraught affairs. To Krista Larson, Galena, Illinois’ new Chief of Police, her high school ten-year reunion is both. The informal gathering of alumni the night before the event reveals tensions simmering in her late twenty-something classmates. The tensions become more apparent during the main get-together at an upscale lakefront resort. Rising Chicago TV news star Astrid Lund, investigative journalist and the most beautiful and successful classmate of them all is present. Astrid cut a swathe through the eligible guys back in the day, and their girlfriends of the time resented it. Many of the men are all too pleased to renew the acquaintance, but Astrid seems distracted.
Astrid’s horrific murder brings pressure to bear on Krista. As America’s youngest female police chief, she knows the spotlight will be on her to solve the first murder case the town has seen for over twenty years. Krista hires as a consultant her father, retired police detective Keith Larson to help her overburdened department. Keith uncovers a link to an unsolved murder in Florida, where another Galena High alumnus was killed months before in a similar frenzied attack. There could also be a link to Chicago’s notorious underworld. When a third person dies at the killer’s hands, Krista and Keith know they’re in a race against time. The answer lies somewhere in Astrid’s days at Galena High School, but Krista will face deadly danger before she discovers the shocking truth.
In Girl Most Likely, small town America and its characters come to life under Collins’ deft touch. Fans of Road to Perdition will enjoy this book.
