Absolute Certainty
A Crime Novel
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
Rose Connors's Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning legal thriller follows Assistant DA Marty Nickerson as she investigates a serial murder in a small Cape Cod town.
As an assistant D for Massachusetts's Barnstable County, Marty Nickerson sees her job as a means for doing right. When a jury finds Manuel Rodriguez guilty of a brutal murder committed on a Cape Cod beach at the beginning of last year's tourist season, Marty feels vindicated. But then another body turns up as this year's vacationers begin to arrive and Marty has to wonder: Did they target the wrong man? The DA refuses to reopen the high-profile case, but Marty fears that the real killer will strike again. With her career on the line and lives at stake, she must rely on her own moral compass, legal savvy, and gut instinct as she matches wits with a twisted killer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Unlike many legal thrillers, which suffer from excess verbiage or rely on obscure legal maneuverings, Connors's first novel offers sleek, straightforward entertainment. A year after a horrific murder (a young man was bludgeoned and mutilated), prosecuting attorney Martha "Marty" Nickerson of Chatham on Cape Cod successfully secures the conviction of Manuel Rodriguez for the crime. For Nickerson, an assistant DA for more than a decade, the conviction is fully satisfying until a second murder, disturbingly similar to the first, occurs. The arrest of a likely suspect for the second crime isn't enough to quiet her growing doubts. She soon finds herself in conflict with her ambitious boss, Geraldine Schilling, and, surprisingly, in league with her frequent adversary, defense attorney Harry Madigan. A single mom raising a teenage son and coping with her ex's belated efforts to forge a bond with his long-ignored son, Nickerson is bright, determined, competent. Her unease turns to dread as her suspicion grows that at least one innocent man has been convicted and more young men will die if the law, rather than justice, is served. To pursue the truth, Nickerson must put her career at risk, alienating her mentor and putting herself outside the very system she has depended on. Connors wrings a fair amount of suspense from her appealing heroine's predicament and shows considerable flair in producing a solution to the crimes. Readers will swiftly devour this swift-paced debut. FYI:A member of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, the author has been a trial attorney for 18 years.
