Lee Vance Restitution

Restitution

Lee Vance

Knopf, Jul 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 9780307266323

Peter Tyler works on Wall St. at prestigious financial giant Klein and Klein. He lives with his beautiful wife Jenna, a pro bono lawyer, in the suburbs and seems to have the perfect lifestyle. However, Peter knows he and Jenna are drifting apart although they still love one another as she wants a family and he fears a repetition of his unhappy childhood. Everything shatters when Detectives Rommy and Tilling inform him that Jenna was brutally murdered in their home. With their questioning focused on whether he had marital woes, Peter knows he is the prime suspect.

The police learn that the only item stolen from the victim's house is a package belonging to Peter's best friend, Moscow based businessman Andrei Zhilina, who mysteriously is incommunicado. Rommy and Tilling also learn Peter had an affair that he insists was a one night mistake, but refuses to name the woman. Knowing he will soon be arrested and believing there is a link between his wife's death and his friend's disappearance, Peter begins an international quest to uncover the identity of who killed Jenna.

The quest especially in Moscow seems plausible and in turn takes this otherwise overly used plot device into a fresh thriller. Peter is filled with guilt over his behavior towards his wife just prior to her murder so besides not wanting to go to prison, he feels strongly that he owes Jenna. Thus the flawed hero starts his quest for salvation, but stumbles all the way as he is a financier who plays Nerf basketball not a detective working a homicide case amidst Russian mobsters, money laundering and stolen masterpieces. His efforts to make RESTITUTION to the memory of Jenna turn this novel into fast-paced exciting human drama.

Harriet Klausner