GWM Book Review: One Wrong Word

When I shared the WSB-TV newsroom in Atlanta with Hank Phillippi Ryan back in the ‘70s, it was obvious even then that she was not only a terrific young reporter but a powerful storyteller, too. I correctly predicted she’d go far.

When she continued her career in Boston, she became one of TV’s most-honored investigative reporters. In 2007, Hank also became a novelist, melding her vast journalistic experience with her extraordinary writing skills. The result to date is 15 novels and a slew of honors and awards that continue unabated.

Hank’s latest book, One Wrong Word, has the trademarks of her earlier novels with a female protagonist dealing with intrigue, mystery, and danger in a plot with more twists and turns than a Rubik’s cube.

Her lead character, Arden Ward, is a crisis management expert who faces a personal and professional crisis of her own.

She’s falsely accused of having an affair with a powerful client and fired. But her devious boss pressures her into one last assignment that might salvage her reputation. That assignment is helping a Boston real estate tycoon, Ned Bannister, reclaim his reputation after his acquittal in a fatal drunk driving trial.

Bannister’s wife Cordelia also desperately wants Arden to help her family with the negative fallout that persists despite the not-guilty verdict.

Arden finds herself drawn into a web of revelations that raise more questions about the night of the fatal event – and then another car crash focuses more suspicions on Bannister.

Hank weaves the threads of this complex tale masterfully, leading the reader through the various plot twists that come in virtually every chapter as Arden and the prosecuting attorney in Ned’s trial try to make sense of the rapid-fire developments.

Hank knows how to entice the reader to turn the page, and her short chapters have a way of tempting you to read just one more before putting the book aside.

I admire Hank’s ability to create a scene using the smallest details to capture the ambiance of a ritzy apartment, the slushy streets of wintertime Boston, the tensions of a cutthroat office environment, and the terror of a pursuit through a snowy Vermont forest at dusk.

One Wrong Word will certainly delight Hank’s many fans and no doubt win her a lot of new ones.

Hank Phillippi Ryan will be the Meet the Author presenter on Feb. 7 at Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) in Eatonton, with doors open at 6:30 for a 7 p.m. start.

Tickets are $40 and will include Boston-themed hors d’oeuvres. Visit GWM online at georgiawritersmuseum.org to order tickets and pre-order a copy of Ryan’s newest book, which she will be signing following her presentation.

John Pruitt is a retired WSB-TV anchor and the author of Tell It True: A Novel.