A heart-racing new psychological thriller from USA Today bestselling and multiple award-winning author, Hank Phillippi Ryan.

ONE WRONG WORD
by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Forge/Macmillan, February 2024
(via DeFiore and Company)

Words have the power to change lives, and no one knows that better than crisis management expert Arden Ward. But she’s in big trouble—she’s accused of having an affair with a client. It’s not true! She would never do such a thing! But she gets the blame—and now she’s about to be fired.

Arden is granted two weeks to save her career and her reputation. And then she meets Cordelia Bannister.

Cordelia needs help for her husband Ned, a successful Boston real estate mogul. Though he was recently acquitted in a fatal drunk driving accident, his reputation has been ruined, and the fallout is devastating not only to the Bannisters’ lives, but the lives of their two young children.

Arden devotes her final days on the job to helping this shattered family, but soon, revelations about what really happened the night of the accident begin to emerge. And then—another car crash throws Ned back into the spotlight.

This case is Arden’s last chance to protect her own future and clear her name—and the Bannister kids may be in danger! But the more she tries to untangle the truth, the more one disturbing question haunts her—what if she’s protecting a killer?

Everyone believes that words can never hurt them, but Arden knows the reality. Sometimes one wrong word can kill.

USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan has won five Agatha Awards in addition to Anthony, Macavity, Daphne du Maurier, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. As on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, she’s won 37 Emmys and many more journalism honors. A past president of National Sisters in Crime and a founder of MWA University, Ryan lives in Boston with her husband.