TAUT,LIVELY,COLORFUL SUSPENSE.
I'm the pickiest reader alive, and I never post a book I didn't like, although Parker isn't one of my all-time faves.
A seventeen-year-old model claims she was raped in the VIP room of a South Beach nightclub by three high-profile men. It's up to Sam Hagen, head of Major Crimes for Dade County, to decide if they should be put on trial. Hagen's own teenage son died in South Beach the year before and Hagen's wife is still in grief over his death. The investigation of the case broadens the gulf between San and his wife and drives him into the arms of a woman from his past.
A page-turner of a legal thriller. Drugs, sex and Miami vice are the back drop for Barbara Parker's complex plot and perfectly developed characters. She's particularly skilled at using the smallest details in nearly every sentence to make readers forget they're reading a book and live within the on-going action and suspense. Very good book.
loved it
Make sure you have plenty of time to read this...once I started I couldn't put it down!
From Publishers Weekly
Once again, Parker (Suspicion of Guilt, Suspicion of Innocence?which was a finalist for the 1995 Edgar for Best First Novel) pushes legal eagles to the edge?here, in a morality tale about the fall from grace of a man, a town and a legal system. Prosecutor Sam Hagan is known for being a straight arrow, so he's the perfect choice to investigate a potentially explosive case and dismiss it for lack of evidence. Or so think both his boss, the Miami DA, who has his eye on national office and doesn't want controversy, and the city manager, who's courting the tourist industry. The plaintiff is a young model who claims that several men, including a well-connected local businessman and a football player turned actor, raped her. Hagen believes the girl and, despite political pressure, pursues the case. The stakes are raised when several of the witnesses and participants are murdered. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's marriage is cracking under the strain of his son's recent death, a situation worsened as he learns devastating details about his son's life in the fast lane. Parker intertwines a number of stories as she spins her complicated tale of sex, power and money in South Miami. Some of the coincidences and liaisons reach soap-opera proportions, but the pace never flags from the opening to the knuckle-whitening finale. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Once again, Parker (Suspicion of Guilt, Suspicion of Innocence?which was a finalist for the 1995 Edgar for Best First Novel) pushes legal eagles to the edge?here, in a morality tale about the fall from grace of a man, a town and a legal system. Prosecutor Sam Hagan is known for being a straight arrow, so he's the perfect choice to investigate a potentially explosive case and dismiss it for lack of evidence. Or so think both his boss, the Miami DA, who has his eye on national office and doesn't want controversy, and the city manager, who's courting the tourist industry. The plaintiff is a young model who claims that several men, including a well-connected local businessman and a football player turned actor, raped her. Hagen believes the girl and, despite political pressure, pursues the case. The stakes are raised when several of the witnesses and participants are murdered. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's marriage is cracking under the strain of his son's recent death, a situation worsened as he learns devastating details about his son's life in the fast lane. Parker intertwines a number of stories as she spins her complicated tale of sex, power and money in South Miami. Some of the coincidences and liaisons reach soap-opera proportions, but the pace never flags from the opening to the knuckle-whitening finale. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The book was good, but it wasn't one of my favorite by Parker.
Prosecutor Sam Hagan is known for being a straight arrow, so he's the perfect choice to investigate a potentially explosive case and dismiss it for lack of evidence. Or so think both his boss, the Miami DA, who has his eye on national office and doesn't want controversy, and the city manager, who's courting the tourist industry. The plaintiff is a young model who claims that several men, including a well-connected local businessman and a football player turned actor, raped her. Hagen believes the girl and, despite political pressure, pursues the case. The stakes are raised when several of the witnesses and participants are murdered. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's marriage is cracking under the strain of his son's recent death, a situation worsened as he learns devastating details about his son's life in the fast lane. Parker intertwines a number of stories as she spins her complicated tale of sex, power and money in South Miami. Some of the coincidences and liaisons reach soap-opera proportions, but the pace never flags from the opening to the knuckle-whitening finale.
