Beach Wedding

Philadelphia police officer Terry Rourke, the winning narrator of this entertaining thriller from bestseller Ledwidge (Run for Cover), has reluctantly returned to the Hamptons for the first time since he left for college some 20 years earlier, to attend his brother Tom’s extravagant wedding. Now a wealthy New York City hedge fund manager, Tom has pulled out all the stops for the occasion, renting a Southampton dream house, complete with chefs, maids, and gardeners, that costs $500,000 per month. Tom has plans “to stick it to” certain members of the Southampton elite who made life difficult for the Rourke family when the boys were growing up in Hampton Bays, “the poor man’s Hamptons,” after their father, Suffolk County’s head assistant district attorney, tried socialite Hailey Sutton for killing her husband, Noah. Memories of the worst period in Terry’s life come flooding back, and he becomes obsessed with discovering the real story about Noah’s death. Meanwhile, others want the truth to remain dead and buried. Appealing characters and snappy patter more than compensate for the so-so ending. Ledwidge really knows how to tell a story. Agent: Josh Getzler, Hannigan Getzler Literary. (Feb.)