Young professor Meg Doherty has long held a dark secret. When a renowned professor is viciously murdered at a Manhattan conference, Meg stumbles upon the scene and quickly comes under police scrutiny. It falls to her brother, Shamus, to help prove Meg's innocence.

The estranged sister and brother we met in Reardon's debut novel, Shadow Campus, now find they know less about each other than they thought. Caught in NYC's blinding media spotlight, gilded society and criminal underworld, the pair must confront not only Meg's secret but a long-suppressed family mystery.

Damned If She Does "artfully stirs" what Kirkus Reviews further describes as a "dangerous cauldron of ambitious scholars." "Informed and searing" in her "takedown of ivory tower politics," Kirkus continues, Reardon makes us work for answers.

Did Meg do it? Did the weight of the secret and guilt at not protecting others become too much? Is that what such secrets do - grow until the victim can take no more? Is there really a right time to speak up? Or even in this #MeToo era are women damned if we do and damned if we don't?

KIRKUS REVIEWS: "INFORMED AND SEARING, [REARDON] ARTFULLY STIRS A DANGEROUS CAULDRON OF AMBITIOUS SCHOLARS. SHE BEEFS UP THE ENGAGING PLOT WITH AN ASSORTMENT OF MAJOR AND MINOR CHARACTERS' BACKSTORIES, AS WELL AS A BIT OF ROMANCE AND SHE ADDS A FEW ORGANIZED CRIME GOONS FOR GOOD MEASURE... A PAGE-TURNING SUCCESS."