The Ex

By Alafair Burke

Olivia is a defense attorney. Back when she was in college, she became engaged to Jack. Jack was everything Olivia wasn't. He was kind, considerate, and emotionally fragile. He came from a close, loving family. All things that didn't apply to Olivia. She often referred to him as St. Jack.
After awhile, Olivia became less enthusiastic about marrying Jack. Instead of telling him, she began to sleep around. Their engagement ended when Jack finally realized what she was doing. He was shattered and turned to his brother for comfort. They got drunk together, that night, and the brother died in a car crash driving home. Jack ended up in a mental hospital after suffering a serious breakdown.
But that was twenty years in the past. Olivia went on to have her career and Jack went on to become a writer. He fell in love, married and they had a child.  Poor Jack, though, tragedy continued to dog him. His wife was killed by a shooter on the train along with several other people.
The shooter, a young, angry, disturbed teen was the son of a wealthy man who had refused to get his child the psychological care he needed. The father was the one who introduced his son to guns and bought guns for him. The son was killed himself at the scene and the families of the victims, including Jack, brought suit against the father but lost.
So now Jack has met a mystery woman and has arranged to meet her at a ball field for a picnic. He shows up with the picnic basket but she doesn't show. Meanwhile the dad of the shooter kid is at the same ball field and he gets shot along with two other people at about the same time as Jack was at the field looking for his date. The cops find video that shows Jack was in the area and they naturally assume he is the killer. So who does Jack turn to for help? His ex-fiancee, Olivia.

This was an okay read. I didn't care for the ending and I often felt while reading that I just wanted it to be finished. Jack turns out not to be a saint and Olivia turns out not to be the bitch she is painted to be, which was no surprise. Unfortunately, if you like justice to be served, then don't read this book. No justice for the murder victims in this story, which is what I mainly disliked about it.
For another review, see http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-239048-6.