The Finishing School is Michele Martinez’s second novel featuring feisty Federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas, freshly separated from her philandering husband and caring for her one-year-old daughter single-handedly. Melanie receives a middle-of-the night summons to a posh Park Avenue penthouse where two teenage girls, students at an exclusive Manhattan Finishing School, are found dead from heroin overdose, while another girl believed to have been with them, has gone missing. One of the girls was Whitney Seward, step-daughter to a wealthy and powerful U.S. Senator candidate, so the pressure is on Melanie by her ambitious, politically-scheming boss to solve the case quickly. But what Melanie uncovers goes far beyond a simple cut-and-dry case, involving sordid secrets, affairs, extortion, kidnapping, a handsome FBI Agent Melanie almost fell into bed with on a previous assignment, and a killer who has no intention of getting caught.

“C.S.I. has nothing on Michele Martinez. Brutally honest and addictive! THE FINISHING SCHOOL is a powerful novel that hits the mark.”
– Jennifer Vido