The 3rd Woman by Jonathan Freedland

Madison Webb is a journalist.  She'll go undercover to get her story, dig until she finds the truth, and she'll expose wrongs even if it's not popular.  At least she will unless her editor kills the story...

Harper sent me an ARC of this book for review (thank you).  It will be published August 4th, so you can grab a copy tomorrow.

Madison is between men, always on the hunt for a good story and thinks life is going well.  When she receives word that her sister is dead from a drug overdose, she drops what she's doing and focuses on that.  Her sister didn't do drugs; she shouldn't have died because of an overdose.  Visiting the site makes her even more positive it wasn't suicide.  She wouldn't have positioned herself on the floor like that.  The police believe it was suicide and aren't planning on doing much.  Madison decides to investigate herself. What she finds is that this isn't the first death.  Her sister is the third victim.  All are young, white and blonde.

There's a political tie-in, international implications, an out-of-control Chinese son who takes what he wants and walks away from consequences, and a good man who can't live with what he knows.  Madison gets crossways in the middle and I began to wonder if she would live until end of the book.  The political intrigue didn't do much for me but the murder mystery was interesting and kept my attention.

The ending is realistic enough but a bit sad all around.  I feel if you are in living in a foreign land, you have to abide by the laws of that land.  Instead, they get sent home to be "corrected".  Depending on your status, you may or may not be punished.  I guess it's no different than rich Americans buying their way out of trouble.  But I prefer justice.