Avenue of Regrets

“I didn’t always hate my life,” self-loathing David Wallace declares at the start of this engrossing novel of domestic suspense from Pineiro (Ashes of Victory, with Joe Weber). On the seven-year anniversary of a terrible personal tragedy, Wallace, who has since founded a shelter for battered women in Austin, Tex., is standing at a hotel bar in San Francisco amid a crowd of conventioneers whose affiliation is unclear. Then an attractive woman asks him, “What’s your sign?” It turns out the bar is filled with astrologers. After Wallace and the woman engage in some innocuous small talk, she hands him her card and leaves in haste. On the back of the card is the message: “Things were not as they seemed 7 years ago. Careful who you trust with this.” What follows is a fast-paced tale of murder and horrific crime with twists and turns worthy of Hitchcock. Along the way, Pineiro, who’s best known for his military/computer thrillers, dishes up some wry reflections on humanity, trust, and forgiveness. [em]Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenburger. (Nov.) [/em]