Across the River: An Andie Rinaldi Mystery

by Cheryl Solimini

It’s the summer of 1992, and William Jefferson Clinton seems headed for the White House. But not all Baby Boomers are having such a great year. Medical reporter Andrealisa “Andie” Rinaldi has just lost her job at the country’s most respected newspaper. (Was it really such a breech of ethics to use her cousin as an interview source?) Her big-city apartment is about to go condo. (Why would she even miss that one-window sweatbox?) Her long-distance romance with a cell biologist is suffering from travel fatigue. (Is love ever possible on a cellular level?) And her twin sister is threatening a relapse of her “impulse control problem.” (Has Caterina gone off her meds again?) Worse yet, Andie’s new employer, at the country’s least respected celebrity tabloid, has just learned of her past relationship with millionaire real-estate developer Joel Nearly 25 years ago, Andie was Joel’s next-door neighbor and frequent playmate. Now the grown-up Joel is the prime suspect in the death of his daughter, Emma, a young fashion model/actress found strangled last New Year’s Eve. The case was never officially solved, and the tabloids won’t let it die. When her editor orders Andie to use her childhood connection for an exclusive interview with Joel, Andie must cross the river to the two-block-wide town she hasn’t set foot in since she was 12. And she has her own reasons for wanting to avoid this trip down Memory Lane. Back in the old neighborhood, Andie finds herself reliving her preteen world of Magic 8 Ball, Mystery Date, and Hide-and-Seek. Several former classmates from Holy Mother Little Academy (or Holy Moly, as it is known) reappear to replay the Her childhood nemesis is now the police detective on the case; her grade-school best friend is Joel’s lawyer; and her first crush has a few secrets of his own. When a new waterfront apartment complex goes up in smoke and another body is found under the smoldering rubble, Andie wonders if this killing was fueled by the first crime—and if the overheated tabloid stories she's been writing helped fan the flames. In this tiny riverside town, shadowed by magnificent cliffs on one side and the world's most treacherous city on the other, Andrealisa Rinaldi finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place. Rekindled rivalries and long-ago loyalties force Andie to confront the ultimate Can she go home again?

Genres: Mystery

285 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2008

About the author

C. (Cheryl) Solimini has written and edited articles for national publications from Family Circle to Working Mother, and online at WomansDay.com. She is also the author of five nonfiction books, including The Not-So-Silent Passage, a Baby Boomer humor book.

A book reviewer and contributing editor for Mystery Scene magazine, Cheryl has profiled Michael Connelly, Linda Fairstein, Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, Cornelia Read, Kate White and Jacqueline Winspear, among others. As a Features Editor for Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine, she interviewed best-selling crime writers such as Janet Evanovich, Elizabeth George, Tony Hillerman, P.D. James, Walter Mosley and Sara Paretsky.


Cheryl is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Though she did grow up in a New Jersey river town three miles long and three blocks wide, she currently lives on eight acres in Milford, Pennsylvania, with her husband and other wildlife.

To learn more about the author, visit her Web site at www.chesol.com.
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Reviews

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written by someone I know, which is why I'm pleased to say that I don't have to lie when I proclaim that it was sharp, funny, and generally awesome. Cheryl sure knows how to write some zippy dialogue.