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Summary
Summary
Prosecutor Ellen North believes she's building a case against a guilty man, and that he has an accomplice in the shadows. As she prepares for the trial of her career, Ellen suddenly finds herself swept into a cruel contest of twisted wits, a dark game of life and death with an evil mind as guilty as sin.
Summary
A cold-blooded kidnapper has been playing a twisted game with a terrified Minnesota town. Now a respected member of the community stands accused of a horrific act of evil. But when a second boy disappears, a frightened public demands to know: Have the police caught the wrong man? Is the nightmare continuing--or just beginning?
Prosecutor Ellen North believes she's building a case against a guilty man--and that he has an accomplice in the shadows. As she prepares for the trial of her career, Ellen suddenly finds herself swept into a cruel contest of twisted wits, a dark dance of life and death . . . with an evil mind as guilty as sin.
Praise for Tami Hoag and Guilty as Sin
"Without a doubt . . . one of the most intense suspense writers around." -- Chicago Tribune
"A chilling study of evil that holds the reader until the shocking surprise ending." -- New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin
"The tangled relationships that lie just beneath the surface of Deer Lake are tantalizingly revealed." -- The New York Times Book Review
"Accomplished and scary." -- Cosmopolitan
Author Notes
Tami Hoag was born on January 20, 1959, in Cresco, Iowa. Her first novel, The Trouble with J. J., was published in 1988. Her other works include Night Sins, Guilty as Sin, The Alibi Man, Prior Bad Acts, Dark Horse, Kill the Messenger, Deeper Than the Dead, Secrets to the Grave, Down the Darkest Road, Cold Cold Heart, the Bitter Season, and The Boy. She is a past recipient of the Career Achievement Award from the Romantic Times.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Night Sins (1994), Hoag's first thriller after a successful run of paperback romances, Minnesota state cop Megan O'Malley tried to solve the kidnapping of eight-year-old Josh Kirkwood in the Minneapolis exurb of Deer Lake. With Megan now in the hospital, the heroine's cap in this sequel sits on the head of new Deer Lake resident-and Assistant County Attorney-Ellen North. Ellen fears the worst for the still-missing boy but thinks she can convict Garrett Wright, respected college professor, of his abduction. When Josh reappears, unharmed physically but nearly autistic, Ellen is sure that Wright has an accomplice. Complications arise quickly: the trial judge dies of a heart attack; another boy vanishes; Wright gains a new defense attorney who happens to be Ellen's ex-lover; and Ellen gains a quasi-partner and potential flame, bestselling true-crime author Jay Brooks. Those unfamiliar with Night Sins will need some time to sort out the characters' Peyton Place-like involvements. Readers new and old, however, will enjoy the political infighting, the legal jockeying and the several jolts of Grand Guignol violence. Hoag, who knows how to push the right buttons, is a suspense writer to watch. (Mar.) ~ FYI: A 16-page excerpt from Guilty as Sin appears in the paperback edition of Night Sins, published last month. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In this sequel to her 1994 hit Night Sins, Hoag revisits Deer Lake, a small midwestern community that is shattered when a well-respected college professor abducts young Josh Kirkwood. The first novel centered on Megan the cop and ended with the professor's arrest. Here the focus is on the trial and Ellen the prosecutor, who thinks she has the case wrapped up until another child is abducted while the professor is in prison awaiting trial. The ironies multiply when Ellen discovers that the defense attorney is her former lover, a high-powered, big-city lawyer who makes Robert Shapiro look like a courtroom lightweight. What's more, handsome courtroom fiction writer Jay Butler Brooks keeps Ellen both cautious and intrigued. This is a competent whodunit, with enough plot twists to keep it interesting. Although the characters are little more than stereotypes, Guilty as Sin is a quick, exciting read, and libraries will want to stock up--especially considering the success of Night Sins and the publisher's aggressive marketing plan. (Reviewed January 1 & 15, 1996)0553099590Mary Frances Wilkens
Kirkus Review
No more meeting-cute for romancer Hoag. Here, couples bond over body bags as the author turns her deft hand to a grisly crime thriller, skillfully constructed if less than completely page- turning. In Night Sins (1995), the first of Hoag's two-part combo, hard-nosed agent Megan O'Malley came to rural Deer Lake, Minnesota, fell in love with hard-nosed police chief Mitch Holt, and together with him tracked down Garrett Wright, the evil genius who kidnapped eight-year-old Josh Kirkwood and then beat up Megan, breaking nearly every bone in her hand--at least twice. This time, hard-nosed prosecutor Ellen North, who left the Twin Cities to get away from big-city violence, wants to rescue Josh and prosecute Wright to the full extent of the law. Complicating her case, though, is, first, handsome southerner Jay Butler Brooks, a millionaire author of true-crime novels whose face has been on the cover of People and whose sexy, smoky drawl insinuates itself under Ellen's tough exterior. (Brooks himself has come to Deer Lake to escape his own personal devils and to cash in on a great story, but he'll stay to be redeemed by Ellen's courage and dedication.) The second complication is young Josh himself, who's returned but is too traumatized to testify. Third is Wright's greasy big-time defense attorney, Tony Costello, who used to be Ellen's lover before he betrayed her. Fourth, no one believes that mild-mannered Professor Wright, an acknowledged community good-guy, could have done such a terrible thing. And, finally, someone keeps littering the icy Minnesota landscape with other bodies, including one of another kidnapped boy. After a lot of gut-wrenching dedication by Ellen, Jay, Megan, and Mitch, there's a bloody if positive resolution and both couples limp off into the sunset. This time out, Hoag abandons some of her outrageous romantic style to investigate more serious moral issues. Worthy, but much less fun.
Library Journal Review
This suspenseful novel, though it stands alone well, is the sequel to Night Sins (LJ 1/1/95), in which a child is abducted for sport by kidnappers who taunt the police, priding themselves on their superior minds. As this novel begins, the child has been returned, terrorized into silence, and one of the kidnappers, a popular college professor, has been caught in the act of trying to kill a police officer. Ellen North is prosecuting a strong case against the professor, but an unethical celebrity lawyer represents him before a star-struck judge. Meanwhile, the unknown conspirators kidnap and kill another child and then stage a series of new events that make it seem likely that the cops got the wrong man. The judge dismisses the case. Fortunately, a true-crime writer has come to follow this case, and his research leads to the discovery of the other conspirators, though not before they have done a lot more damage. The aura of evil is powerful in this book. Characters and relationships are well drawn and convincing. Public libraries will definitely want this. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/95.]Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
"If I were after you for nefarious purposes," he said as he advanced on her, "would I be so careless as to approach you here?" He pulled a gloved hand from his pocket and gestured gracefully to the parking lot, like a magician drawing attention to his stage. "If I wanted to harm you," he said, stepping closer, "I would be smart enough to follow you home, find a way to slip into your house or garage, catch you where there would be little chance of witnesses or interference." He let those images take firm root in her mind. "That's what I would do if I were the sort of rascal who preys on women." He smiled again. "Which I am not." "Who are you and what do you want? " Ellen demanded, unnerved by the fact that a part of her brain catalogued his manner as charming. No, not charming. Seductive. Disturbing. "Jay Butler Brooks. I'm a writer--true crime. I can show you my driver's license if you'd like," he offered, but made no move to reach for it, only took another step toward her, never letting her get enough distance between them to diffuse the electric quality of the tension. "I'd like for you to back off," Ellen said. She started to hold up a hand, a gesture meant to stop him in his tracks--or a foolish invitation for him to grab hold of her arm. Pulling the gesture back, she hefted her briefcase in her right hand, weighing its potential as a weapon or a shield. "If you think I'm getting close enough to you to look at a DMV photo, you must be out of your mind." "Well, I have been so accused once or twice, but it never did stick. Now my Uncle Hooter, he's a different story. I could tell you some tales about him. Over dinner, perhaps?" "Perhaps not." He gave her a crestfallen look that was ruined by the sense that he was more amused than affronted. "After I waited for you out here in the cold?" "After you stalked me and skulked around in the shadows?" she corrected him, moving another step backward. "After you've done your best to frighten me?" "I frighten you, Ms. North? You don't strike me as the sort of woman who would be easily frightened. That's certainly not the impression you gave at the press conference." "I thought you said you aren't a reporter." "No one at the courthouse ever asked," he confessed. "They assumed the same way you assumed. Forgive my pointing it out at this particular moment, but assumptions can be very dangerous things. Your boss needs to have a word with someone about security. This is a highly volatile case you've got here. Anything might happen. The possibilities are virtually endless. I'd be happy to discuss them with you. Over drinks," he suggested. "You look like you could do with one." "If you want to see me, call my office." "Oh, I want to see you, Ms. North," he murmured, his voice an almost tangible caress. "I'm not big on appointments, though. Preparation time eliminates spontaneity." "That's the whole point." "I prefer to catch people...off balance," he admitted. "They reveal more of their true selves." "I have no intention of revealing anything to you." She stopped her retreat as a group of people emerged from the main doors of City Center. "I should have you arrested." He arched a brow. "On what charge, Ms. North? Attempting to hold a conversation? Surely y'all are not so inhospitable as your weather here in Minnesota, are you?" She gave him no answer. The voices of the people who had come out of the building rose and fell, only the odd word breaking clear as they made their way down the sidewalk. She turned and fell into step with the others as they passed. Jay watched h Excerpted from Guilty as Sin: A Novel by Tami Hoag All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.