The Big Exit by David Carnoy

Richie Forman is slowly putting his life back together.  He spent years in prison after being convicted of vehicular manslaughter.  In a messy case that made the headlines, Richie's car hit another on his way home from his bachelor party and killed the other driver.  Richie acknowledges he had been drinking, but doesn't remember driving.  Was he the driver as the evidence says, or did his best friend, Mark McGregor,  swap places with him after the wreck when he saw that Richie was passed out?  The possible betrayal goes even deeper when Richie finds out that Mark used the time of Richie's sentence to woo and marry Richie's ex-fiance, Beth.

Whatever happened is now in the past, Richie thinks.  He is out, making a living with his singing at night, and starting a new job at a law firm set up to exonerate those falsely convicted.  His life is starting to come together again.  All that changes when Mark is found hacked to death in his garage.  Beth came home and found him.  Is she the main suspect or is Richie the obvious candidate with his bitterness about Mark's actions? 

The evidence linking Richie to the murder starts to pile up.  One of the main detectives in his first case, Hank Madden, seems convinced that Richie is the culprit.  Beth has hired a lawyer, and it turns out to be the prosecutor who tried and convicted Forman.  Is history repeating itself?

David Carnoy has written a fresh, interesting mystery.  The characters are engaging, and the book's pace is such that the reader is drawn along.  The plot is intricate, and the police procedures are satisfactorily researched rather than being unrealistic as is often the case with mysteries.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  They will turn the last page satisfied and ready for another Carnoy novel.