Keep Quiet by Lisa Scottoline - 3 stars

[Ellen]

Jake Buckman wants to have a closer relationship with his 16-year-old son Ryan so when Ryan begs Jake to let him drive home from the movies, even though it is past the legal hour for someone with only a learner's permit to be driving, Jake agrees. As they come to a blind curve on the dark road they feel a thump under the wheels. Ryan is sure he has hit a deer but once they pull off the road they find the body of a young girl and she is not breathing. Jake attempts CPR but cannot revive the girl and as he sees his son's future become bleaker and legally questionable, Jake makes the decision to leave the scene of the accident.

Keeping the truth from his wife Pam, a well respected judge, proves to be almost impossible. The situation goes from bad to worse when a total stranger approaches Jake with photos and a video of Jake and Ryan standing over the girl's body. Unsurprisingly, the stranger demands money to keep quiet. Jake scrambles to find the cash to pay the bribe but before he can deliver the funds, the stranger himself is murdered. The net is drawing closer around Jake and Ryan but Jake's imminent fear is that there is a murderer somewhere out there and that person obviously knows the truth.

The story was exciting and suspenseful but no matter how Jake tried to justify what he did, I can't get past the fact that he left the girl on the side of the road. That is distasteful on every level even though he tried to justify his actions as saving his son from jail and a ruined future. I didn't like Pam a whole lot either. I did mostly figure out the truth of the situation fairly early on but the suspense built to a high point at the end. Not too bad.