Cold Justice
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Nowhere do startling intrigue and enthralling authenticity come together so powerfully as in the Kali O’Brien thrillers from former attorney Jonnie Jacobs. Now the San Francisco lawyer takes on a case that hits too close to home: the murder of her best friend by a serial killer who steps from the very pages of Kali’s own past . . .
When her friend Anne misses a dinner engagement, Kali knows that something must be wrong, but nothing could possibly prepare her for the news that Anne’s body as been found – strangled and provocatively posed next to a Dumpster. When a yellow rose and a poem are sent to Anne’s husband, Kali’s worst fears are realized.
Kali has seen that particular calling card before. Eight years ago, while working for the district attorney’s office, she helped to prosecute a serial killer known as the Bayside Strangler – a man recently executed for his crimes. When Anne’s death is followed by another similar one, it raises the possibility that either an innocent man was executed – or a dangerous copycat is on the loose. Either way spells doom for Owen Nelson, the ambitions DA who became famous for putting the Bayside Strangler behind bars – and who is now running for governor of California.
With his political career hanging in the balances, Owen persuades Kali to return to the DA’s office for one purpose only: to obtain an airtight conviction. Now, Kali must put aside her grief and delve deeply into the sealed secrets of a case long thought closed, searching for the clue that links the past to the present – and for the deadly mistake that let a killer walk free, waiting for the chance to strike again. When a third body is discovered, Kali realizes that the victims are anything but random. A chilling pattern is emerging, a pattern that points directly to the next target – Kali herself . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.