Writer, reporter touts new novel at Lynn Library

LYNN – Hank Phillippi Ryan said making the transition from investigative reporter to best-selling mystery novel writer was easy, because both roles involve unraveling secrets, whether they are real or imaginary.Ryan, known for her years as a television reporter for NBC news affiliate Channel 7, appeared at the Lynn Public Library Tuesday night to promote her new book, “The Other Woman,” first published in September.View her websiteRyan told her audience of 30 that she had always wanted to write mystery novels and began her “second career” doing just that. “I realized over the years it?s very similar,” she said. “It?s all about a fabulous story, wonderful character, and wanting the bad guys to get what?s coming to him.”Ryan said “The Other Woman,” set in Boston, begins with an investigative reporter who loses her job after refusing to reveal a source. After taking a lower level reporting job, she begins to follow a story about a mysterious woman showing up in campaign photos of a candidate for senate. Soon, it?s revealed that several murders may be linked to the reporter?s story.?It?s about sex, secrets, marriage, fidelity, deception, power, corruption and how far someone would go to get what they want,” said Ryan. “Most of all it?s about consequences. Every decision changes other people?s lives.”A native of Indiana, Ryan said she was so caught up in the book?s Boston setting that she caught herself merging reality with the fiction. She laughed as she recalled a time she was traveling down the Mass Pike with her husband and said, “Exit 17, this is where Jane was chased by the bad guy ? No, wait, I made that up!”Near the end of her talk, Ryan encouraged her audience to follow their own dreams in becoming writers. “When I finished writing my first book ? I typed, ?The End,? and then I burst into tears. But I shouldn?t have, because it wasn?t the end at all. It was the beginning of the second half of my life.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].