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Summary
Summary
San Francisco lawyer Kali O'Brien has taken on a case that hits close to home: the murder of her best friend by a serial killer who has stepped out of Kali's own past.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Dwayne Davis, aka the Bayside Strangler, has been dead for a year when Anne Bailey, a defense lawyer formerly on the prosecution team that got Davis the death penalty, is killed in the Strangler's signature style. Anne's law partner, Kali O'Brien, was also involved in the Davis case and notifies her former boss, San Francisco DA Owen Nelson, of the similarities. Nelson fears that bad press could derail his run for governor and persuades Kali to rejoin the payroll and run the case to forestall cover-up charges. She soon has her hands full as the bodies pile up, and she must deal with woman-hating cop Lou Fortune, creepy stalker Nathan Sloane and a growing suspicion that she could be next on the killer's list. A romantic attraction to Lou's partner, Det. Bryce Keating, further complicates affairs. Former attorney Jacobs (Witness for the Defense) has a magic touch with characters from sleazy Mission Street hoods to political power brokers. Clues sometimes give away too much too soon, but menacing red herrings and Technicolor personalities pace the woman-in-peril plot and sharpen the suspense. The author pulls off the neat trick of featuring a lawyer protagonist in a character-driven police procedural that never sees the inside of a courtroom. This is a smash installment in a popular series that is easy to relate to and relentlessly entertaining. (June) Forecast: Local sales will be strong for this San Francisco-based suspense novel (Shadow of Doubt was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller). (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Neither of her latest suitors is exactly what he seems. Ultrapersistent Nathan Sloane doesn't quite measure up to his yuppie image: He has no home phone, and his purported employer, Global Investment, has never heard of him. Homicide detective Bryce Keating, on the other hand, repeatedly shows more sensitivity than his little-black-book reputation would warrant. But the real reason Kali O'Brien spends so little time worrying about her men isn't her latest romantic disaster (Witness for the Defense, 2001) but her current forensic nightmare: Only months after the execution of Dwayne Arnold Davis for the Bayside Strangler murders, new corpses start appearing, dolled up in slutwear and strategically placed next to trash bins, just as the Strangler's were. It's bad enough that the first new victim is Anne Bailey, who worked with Kali on the team that prosecuted Davis. Worse yet, the media, led by reporter Jack Jackson, are all over the case. But worst of all, Kali's former boss, Alameda county DA Owen Nelson, is running for governor, and can't afford to have the public think that he might have executed the wrong man. An investigation that threatens to stop Nelson's political career cold may be just as deadly for Kali, as she follows the dangerous trail of someone with too much inside information to be just another serial killer. Intriguing possibilities narrowed down by solid detection will keep readers guessing to the end. Concentrating on the classic elements-mystification and surprise-puts Jacobs right up there with the big guns.
Booklist Review
San Francisco attorney Kali O'Brien helped prosecute the Bayside Strangler, a serial killer who terrorized Oakland women. Eight years later, the Strangler has been executed, Kali is a defense attorney, and her colleague on the case is now running for governor. Then Kali's friend, Anne, is killed in a manner identical to the Strangler's M.O., and another, similar murder follows quickly. Kali agrees to return to the D.A.'s office to determine if the current killings are the work of a copycat or if the wrong man was executed. As a pattern begins to emerge, Kali realizes that she is the next target. Jacobs' fifth Kali O'Brien novel is the best of a steadily improving series. The pace is fast, the mystery is difficult to solve, the twisting plot delivers frequent adrenaline jolts, and the characters are uniformly well developed. The dark Bay Area settings will remind readers of Julie Smith and Marcia Muller but also of John Lescroart. --John Rowen
Library Journal Review
This latest in the author's Kali O'Brien series (Shadow of Doubt) pits the San Francisco lawyer against a serial murderer with an agenda. He uses the MO of a serial killer who was recently executed and his first victim happens to be Kali's best friend. Riveting suspense. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
