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Book Reviewed by:From the book jacket: For Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid's thirty-second birthday, she gets an unusual gift: a homicide call out. The crime scene: the elite Hillside neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The victim: hotshot investigative reporter Percy Crenshaw, who has been bludgeoned to death in his carport....
The case looks straightforward, especially when one of the suspects confesses. But then the man recants, claiming coercive police tactics, and Samantha finds herself digging for more evidence..... her search leads her through an elaborate maze of connections between the city's drug trade and officers in the bureau's north precinct.
Comment: Most critics agree that this is Alafair Burke's best book
yet, but some still feel she's not quite achieving her full potential.
For example, Kirkus say, "Now that she's mastered the high concept and the
breadth, maybe next time [she] can deliver the pace and momentum that would
raise her to the first rank." and Publishers Weekly opines that "Burke
confidently lays out the procedural details, but she's less sure at rendering
complex personal relationships." However, to put things in
perspective, these are the negative comments in otherwise very positive reviews.
If you're a police procedural/thriller fan and have not yet tried one of Alafair
Burke's books, this would be a good time to start!
"Burke's first-person narration works beautifully, but alternating it with the occasional third-person narration for the Hatmaker story line feels awkward in this otherwise superb legal thriller. Highly recommended." - Library Journal.
"..a page-turner with humor, intelligence, and a kickass heroine. Alafair Burke just keeps getting better and better." - Harlan Coben.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in July 2005, and has been updated for the
June 2006 edition.
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