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Publication date 8th February 2018
Publisher : Midnight Ink
390 pages
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Lauren Riley is an accomplished detective who has always been on the opposite side of the courtroom from her nemesis, slick defense attorney Frank Violanti. But now he's begging to hire her as a private investigator to help clear his client of murder. At first Lauren refuses, wanting nothing to do with the media circus surrounding that case—until she meets the eighteen-year-old suspect.
To keep an innocent teen from life in prison, Lauren must unravel the conflicting evidence and changing stories to get at the buried facts. But the more she digs, the more she discovers that nothing is what it first appears to be. As Lauren puts her career and life in danger, doubt starts to lurk on every corner . . . and so does her stalker.
My thoughts:
Usually I struggle to read US crime novels as I don't know enough about how the ranks of detectives, attorneys, etc fit together and which holds the most clout in legal terms. This novel however captured my attention throughout. I found it reminiscent in mood to the 'Shades of Blue' series starring Jennifer Lopez which recently aired its second series here in the UK.
The scene is set in the cold case department of Buffalo police HQ where Lauren Riley and her partner Reese work together to try and solve some of the old cases which never saw a conclusion to the crime. A single mom to two college students who live away from the family home I found Lauren's character really well developed and, if slightly stereotyped, very real.
Twice-divorced Lauren works two jobs; her day job is in the cold case department and she supplements this income with a lesser position as a private detective. It is in this second role that defence attorney Frank Violanti requests her services to try and prove his godson's innocence in a murder case. Lauren and Frank have clashed across the courtroom on several occasions so Lauren is quite surprised that Frank should ask for her assistance in any capacity. The two characters have a grudging respect for each other professionally and manage to rub along together to find out the facts of the case not without a few bumps along the way.
The main problem with the case is that the prosecuting officer is one of Lauren's ex partners Joe Wheeler. He is still bitter about his split with Lauren and would desperately like to have another chance to be back in her personal life. He sees this as his chance to prove to her what a good catch he would be. Unfortunately his inability to control his temper puts paid to any remaining respect Lauren had for him and his personal involvement takes over where his professionalism should be his first priority. Wheeler tries to claim that Lauren's involvement in this case is a conflict of interests with her day job in an attempt to get her thrown off the case and therefore make his job of prosecuting the young man so much easier. No spoilers here but there are some strong court scenes which make for great reading.
The author demonstrates an excellent knowledge of how evidence is collected in a criminal case in the US and how both the defence and prosecution can use this evidence to strengthen or destroy the case in question whether that be in a current case or a resurrected cold case.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was pleased to discover (as I had hoped) that there will be a second book in the series released in early 2019. I highly recommend that you give this book a chance, especially if you are a fan of US TV crime series.
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