Hedging

Annette Meyers knows how to spin a mystery. I've read all the Smith & Wetzon books and this one was a great "read". Even though there are recurring characters in the series, there is no reason you can't read this as a stand alone although you'll probably want to read all the titles. What makes the stories fascinating is that Ms. Meyers writes about things she knows well: New York City, Broadway and Wall Street. The urgent sense of the writing from the first page will have you hooked.

Annette Meyers has spent time both on Wall Street as an Executive Search Consultant (or head hunter) and on Broadway as an assistant to director-producer Hal Prince. She worked on A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, A Little Night Music, Company and Follies. She has published seven Smith and Wetzon mysteries, Repentences, Free Love, and Murder Me Now. She is a past president of Sisters-in-Crime and is current president of the International Association of Crime Writers, North America. A plane crash leaves Wall Street headhunter Leslie Wetzon wandering the streets of New York with amnesia. Leslie wakes up at New York City hospital as a Jane Doe, and the blood on her dress suggests violence and death. She escapes from the hospital after a sinister looking man appears claiming to be her uncle. Leslie knows if the man finds her she will surely be murdered. Her photo makes the rounds of the newspapers with the name Mary Lou Salinger, and Leslie also knows that isn't her real name. It isn't until her dog, Izzy, recognizes her on the street with her ex-boyfriend NYPD Detective Silvestri on the human end of the leash that Leslie begins to piece her life back together. In the meantime, she needs to make major decisions involving Silvestri before her life will truly re-emerge: "In the elevator, she caught Silvestri's hand. 'You know I have to do this. The rest of what I lost is going to come back. I want to be ready for it.' 'I know. I just don't want to let you out of my sight.' He took two keys Off his keychain and gave them to her. 'I'm back and I'm staying,' she told him. 'And I'm broke.'" Annette Meyers knows how the use the diversity and glamour of New York City to best advantage in her Leslie Wetzon/Xenia Smith mysteries. Her plots are character driven with snappy dialogue and engaging drama, obviously a product of her many years on Broadway. Not only does she tell a story, but she manages to attach a bit of allegory, so that the reader has a real feeling of satisfaction at story's end. Smith and Wetzon are virtual opposites, which makes for many comedic moments. All in all, HEDING rocks. Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer

She escapes the thugs chasing her with assistance from a blind man and is his seeing eye dog, but the Good Samaritan took a bullet for her. Later the cops find Jane Doe suffering from hypothermia in Central park and take her for treatment at Mount Sinai. She has no idea who she is, but a trustee on a tour of the hospital sees her. Louis Gold claims Jane is his niece Mary Lou Salinger. The name does not feel right and her "Uncle" Louis strikes fear in her heart so TJ, as she calls herself Temporary Jane, flees the hospital. At an all night diner, TJ meets Zoey Kanter. They help each other with TJ filling in at the counter when Zoey has a seizure; while afterward Zoey gives TJ a place to crash. Later Zoey takes TJ to meet her mime troupe, but the amnesiac victim wonders who she is because Mary Lou allegedly died in a plane crash. Who can she trust, and why do thugs want her silenced? This is a terrific woman in peril tale starring a bewildered protagonist who has no idea why people are chasing her, but knows that those who help her end up hurt or dead. The tale hooks the audience from the moment that TJ uses a bus to flee Jersey for Manhattan. Fans of tense dramas will not be HEDGING their bets to read the latest Smith and Wetzon tale as this is a suspenseful winner that will send readers like this reviewer looking for the previous six Manhattan mysteries. Harriet Klausner