The Trials of Nikki Hill Author:Dick Lochte, Christopher Darden Out-of-control cops. High-priced defense attorneys. Missing evidence. Lying suspects. A system that sometimes works-and sometimes doesn't. In fifteen years as deputy district attorney in Los Angeles, Christopher Darden has seen it all-including the inner workings of the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Now he brings his vision, experience, and a dead... more »-on ear for street-smart dialogue to a novel that is far more than a legal thriller. THE TRIALS OF NIKKI HILL is a tour de force, a riveting tale of murder, and a wild ride through the Los Angeles criminal justice system. Your guide is Nicolette Hill, a beautiful and ambitious young black prosecutor on her way up in the district attorney's office and a heroine for the new millennium. Nikki has a career but not a life, an expensive house but no dining room table, and a serious lack of romance. On top of this, Nikki has just been handed the high-profile case of her career: the body of Maddie Gray, host of TV's most popular tabloid news show, has been found in a Dumpster in South Central gangland. The police immediately have a suspect in Jamal Deschamps, a young black man arrested at the scene with Maddie's ring in his pocket. Then the airtight case against him springs some big-time leaks-sending Nikki and a quirky team of homicide detectives scrambling to find the real killer, while an army of attorneys, spin doctors, crooked cops, and case-hardened gangstas starts working overtime to make the wheels of justice spin just the way they want. When Nikki finally gets a suspect whose guilt she can believe in-this time it's a famous African-American R&B diva-the case may already be doomed. From South Central homeboys in baggy pants to courthouse hitters in three-piece suits, THE TRIALS OF NIKKI HILL captures men and women in the often chaotic pursuit of a thing called justice-and one particular woman courageously fighting her way through the system, with her career, her pride, and her life hanging in the balance.« less