SHOT GIRL by Karen E. Olson

[Gerald So]

New Haven police reporter Annie Seymour is at a strip club for a colleague's bachelorette party when gunshots are heard outside. Investigating, Annie finds the club manager, her ex-husband Ralph, dead. At first, the police suspect Annie and her paper pulls her off the police beat as a result. Compelled to look into her ex's affairs to clear her name, she uncovers a conspiracy involving illegal purchases of guns and drugs.

Shot Girl is told in first person from Annie's viewpoint. While a typical first-person narrator may be guarded with other characters but reveal all to readers, Annie is guarded with both. Her own role in events is teased out by others and confessed only when she absolutely must. This makes for more twists than I expected. Olson sustains the novel's pace with Annie's persistent questions as she needs to know the whole story. To Olson's credit, Annie has the same questions readers do at the moment they do, and the nature of the story leads readers to assess events and characters many times over. Satisfying.