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Book Reviewed by:Investigating the brutal murder of a hotshot journalist, Samantha Kincaid finds herself caught in the middle of an increasingly personal - and potentially dangerous - struggle between Portland's police and the DA's office.
Investigating the
brutal murder of a hotshot journalist, Samantha Kincaid finds herself
caught in the middle of an increasingly personal-and potentially
dangerous-struggle between Portland's police and the DA's office
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.
Tensions in the city have been
running high. The previous week, a police officer shot and killed an
unarmed mother of two in what he claims was self-defense; in the
aftermath, protestors have waged increasingly agitated anti-police
protests. Crenshaw's death, it seems, is not unrelated: within a
matter of hours, police arrest two young men who appear to have
embarked on a crime spree in the aftermath of the protests. 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. Following Crenshaw's
steps, her search leads her through an elaborate maze of connections
between the city's drug trade and officers in the bureau's north
precinct.
Samantha's pursuit of the truth puts
her in the middle of city political battles and on the outs with the
cops, including her new live-in boyfriend, Detective Chuck Forbes.
Worse yet, the path left by Crenshaw could lead Samantha to the same
fatal end.
With Close Case, Alafair Burke
delivers her most suspenseful and powerful novel yet.
Chapter 1
Hotshot reporter Percy Crenshaw died on
the last day of my thirty-second year.
I'm crystal clear on the timing, because
I remember precisely where I was when I got word the following morning. I was
slogging away in the misdemeanor intake unit, issuing criminal trespass after
criminal trespass case, thinking to myself, This is a shitty way to spend
my thirty-second birthday.
The way I saw it, I had no business
working at intake. I have been a prosecutor for seven years, three federally
as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York City, and four in my current
position as a Deputy District Attorney for Multnomah County. Only someone with
a local connection would know where Multnomah County is, let alone how to
pronounce it. It's the county whose seat is Portland, Oregon, the rainy city
in the Pacific Northwest. Not the big one with the needle in the skyline, the
smaller one south of there.
Before hearing the ...
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!..continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Harlan Coben
..a page-turner with humor, intelligence, and a kickass heroine. Alafair Burke just keeps getting better and better. Laura Lippman
Close Case is a terrific, multilayered novel, one that constantly surprises and delights. Everything is just right - the quotidian details about prosecutors, cops, and reporters, the richness of the Portland setting, the seamless plotting. Alafair Burke has outdone herself. Lee Child
Hot, hardboiled...and highly recommended.Close Case is the third in Alafair Burke's Samantha Kincaid series, preceded by Judgement Calls (2003) and Missing Justice (2004). She is a former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon who now teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School and serves as a legal and trial commentator for radio and TV programs, including Court TV. She is also the daughter of crime writer, James Lee Burke. When asked whether she feels she's following in the footsteps of her father she says, "Actually, when it comes to mysteries, you could say my father followed in my footsteps. Many people don't know that he published several works before turning to crime fiction with The Neon Rain, so no one thought of my father as a mystery writer ...
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