The Girl Next Door by Brad Parks

Newspaper reporter Carter Ross decides to write a story about Nancy Marino, a woman who's killed in a hit-and-run while delivering the newspaper that Carter works for. At Nancy's wake, Carter meets her family and then later gets a phone call from Marino's sister, Jeanne, who believes Nancy was murdered and aludes to problems at work. Nancy was also employed at a local diner, so Carter delves into Nancy's jobs at both workplaces. The fact that he and Nancy worked for the same paper becomes a problem when he starts looking at Gary Jackman, the publisher, as a possible suspect. Working to uncover more reasons that Nancy's death wasn't an accident soon becomes Carter's focus, even as he finds his career in jeopardy. The Girl Next Door is the third book in the Carter Ross mystery series and was enjoyable, even though most readers will figure out the identity of the killer early on. Readers who like David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter mysteries should give this series a try.