Across the River is Solimini's first venture into fiction, specifically the mystery genre. Her character, Andrealisa Rinaldi, is a Catholic Italian Jersey girl who writes for a tabloid. She's assigned the task of getting a story about a childhood friend and his murdered daughter . Can she do it without alienating the small town she grew up in? Can she do it while maintaining a long distance romance? A couple of old friends/flames pursue her. Can she do it while keeping her bi-polar twin out of trouble?

There's a lot here. This story has many twists and turns, all satisfying, before it reaches its conclusion. My sister gave me an autographed copy of the book for Christmas which included a pixie stix. I was supposed to eat it at a certain point in the book. I didn't because I was reading upstairs and the pixie stix was downstairs in the kitchen. There are a lot of references to "baby-boomer" candies in the book, but you'll have to read the story to find out why.

I would definitely recommend this book. It's billed as an 'Andie Rinaldi' mystery. I hope that means the story with continue. ( )