The Wrong Girl

Written by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Narrated by Ilyana Kadushin

Award-winning and Boston Globe bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan presents a spine-chilling, heart-wrenching suspense novel that explores a terrifying scenario striking at the heart of every family.

Does a respected adoption agency have a frightening secret? Tipped off by a determined ex-colleague on a desperate quest to find her birth mother, Boston newspaper reporter Jane Ryland begins to suspect that the agency is engaging in the ultimate betrayal—reuniting birth parents with the wrong children.

For detective Jake Brogan and his partner, a young woman's brutal murder seems a sadly predictable case of domestic violence, one that results in two toddlers being shuttled into the foster care system. Then Jake finds an empty cradle at the murder scene. Where is the baby who should have been sleeping there?

Jane and Jake are soon on a trail full of twists and turns that takes them deep into the heart of a foster care system in crisis and threatens to blow the lid off an adoption agency scandal. When the threatening phone calls start, Jane knows she is on the right track…but with both a killer at large and an infant missing, time is running out….

The Wrong Girl is a riveting novel of familial relationships—both known and unknown—vile greed, senseless murder, and the ultimate in deception. What if you didn't know the truth about your own family?

Includes a bonus interview with Hank Phillippi Ryan

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Sep 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781427231949

Hank Phillippi Ryan

USA Today bestselling author HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN has won five Agatha Awards in addition to Anthony, Macavity, Daphne du Maurier, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. As on-air investigative reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV, she's won 37 Emmys and many more journalism honors, and her work has resulted in new laws, criminals sent to prison, homes saved from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in restitution for victims and consumers. A past president of National Sisters in Crime and founder of MWA University, her novels include Trust Me, The Murder List, the Charlotte McNally series (starting with Prime Time), and the Jane Ryland series (which begins with The Other Woman). Ryan lives in Boston with her husband.

Reviews for The Wrong Girl

[knittingmomof3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have heard wonderful things about Hank Phillippi Ryan's books and thought I should give one a try. While I enjoyed The Wrong Girl, it did not grab me the way others in the genre have.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the 2nd installment of the Jane Ryland series, although I haven’t read the first. I think that other than the back story on the relationship between Jake and Jane, the book easily can be read as a standalone. In this book, a fellow reporter, Tuck, is searching for her birth mother, but believes the agency provides her with incorrect information. As people associated with the agency being dying, Jane and Jake uncover a sinister plot.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

As far as pop fiction mysteries go, this one wasn't too bad. The mystery/detective plot was actually pretty good. Nothing too outrageous nor obvious. What provoked the two star ranking is twofold: 1) incessant rhetorical questions by characters that are obvious to any reader with half a brain and do nothing to further the story. "Why is he here? Who murdered X?" The reader is already wondering these things; the author does not need to tell the reader to wonder these things. Rhetorical questions of this nature are space fillers and suggest to me that the author did not have enough material to flesh out the story in better ways. (True, rhetorical questions are even more obvious in audiobooks than they are in paper, perhaps because I can't skim over them the same way. Nevertheless...) @) nearly every dialogue in the book seemed to be interrupted by the protagonist's impatience/frustration/distraction/etc which only served to frustrate me. You know when you watch a soap opera and the actors pause frequently and then the scene cuts away and the story moves forward like a glacier as a result? [Joey on FRIENDS explained this concept really well.] That's the effect these interruptions had for me, except when the interruption was especially lengthy: then I simply forgot that I was reading a dialogue altogether! I wanted to yell, "Just let the person speak and actually listen to them!" Instead, characters were so focussed on one thing they missed relevant information. (Just like in the soaps.) Once or twice with this stylistic device, okay, I can handle that. But when nearly every conversation seemed to follow this pattern? Exasperating. More uninterrupted dialogue, please.

Read another by this author? Maybe if I'm desperate for an audiobook, but it won't be soon.

[bookczuk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Second novel featuring intrepid reporter Jane Ryland (former newscaster, fired for refusing to name a source, now working for a second string newspaper in Boston, and who has a powerful hankering for local detective Jake Brogan -- who hankers back.) Many of the problems I had with the first book have been ironed out. I still am adjusting to abundant mobile phone/voice mail/text usage as a plot mover, but am getting over my issues with that, since it's a way of the world these days. The author is ratcheting up the tension between Jane and Jake, and the device of "we've got a powerful attraction, but can't follow through because it would compromise the integrity of our work" is used a lot. I may check out Ryan's other series.

[auntieknickers · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received an ARC of this book in late June from the author in a random drawing. It's taken me this long to write this review not because I didn't read it right away -- I did. I think it was the subject matter -- adoption and foster care -- that blocked me. You see, one of my duaghters has been fostering a baby girl from the age of ten days. On September 6, the adoption became final and I'm now officially a grandmother. So I can heave a sigh of relief and talk a bit about The Wrong Girl. We met reporter Jane Ryland, who had recently moved from TV journalism to print, in the thrilling The Other Woman. She's very interested in Boston police detective Jake Brogan, and he in her, but both realize the potential ethical conflicts and are playing it cool for now. As Jane tries to help her erstwhile deskmate Tuck find her birthmother, Jake is investigating the murder of a young woman found in an apartment with two small children-- and evidence of a possible third. Then, people at the adoption agency that handled Tuck's adoption start turning up dead. With many twists and turns, some truly firghtening scenes, and just enough romance, Ryan keeps the reader guessing till the end. Hank Philippi Ryan's day job as an investigative reporter lends the ring of truth to Jane's efforts to solve the mystery. Highly recommended.

[jim53_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jane Ryland (The Other Woman) returns in this follow-up. Once again Ryan turns the heat up from the beginning. Jane is feeling insecure about her job and torn about the frustration of er relationship with homicide detective Jake Brogan. Her former co-worker, Tucker Cameron, tells Jane that she has been connected with her birth mother and wants Jane's help, because she thinks she's the wrong girl.At the same time, an unidentified woman is found murdered, and two small children are taken from the scene. Jane and Jake will both get involved with this and other deaths, as well as the adoption agency that contacted Tucker.Ryan rotates quickly among several stories and viewpoints in four- and five-page chapters that feature lots of mini-cliffhangers. This approach minimizes exposition and helps her to keep the tension high. The story is well told, and the pieces end up fitting together nicely. She goes to some lengths to have Jane and Jake, pursuing different leads, ending up in the same place repeatedly. It's fun.Jane and Jake are both well drawn and sympathetic characters. A few others are kinda flat, which is the main reason why I don't give it another half star. I'm definitely looking forward to more of this series.

[librarian1204 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jane Ryland returns as a print reporter trying to keep her distance from the hot police detective, Jake. Intricate plot with lots going on. Adoption agency and child welfare figure prominently . Boston setting.

[jfe16 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“I don’t think she’s my mother.” Tucker Cameron’s astonishing claim propels reporter Jane Ryland into a perplexing puzzle; soon the murders of a foster mother and an adoption agency employee are intersecting with her investigation, And Detective Jake Brogan is certain there’s a missing baby . . . .From the first page, Hank Phillippi Ryan’s superbly-written “The Wrong Girl” thrusts the reader into the middle of an intriguing mystery with more twists and turns than a roller coaster . . . and takes the reader hurtling along at breakneck speed to its stunning conclusion. How can there be a “wrong” girl . . . and is there a “right” girl? It’s a must-read, a can’t-put-it-down thriller that will keep you guessing right to the very end. “The Wrong Girl” is a surefire hit; highly recommended . . . don’t miss this one!