From Publishers Weekly
In Burke's absorbing third Samantha Kincaid mystery (after 2004's Missing Justice), the 32-year-old deputy DA and her just-moved-in lover, Det. Chuck Forbes, look into the murder of Percy Crenshaw, a popular investigative reporter and liaison to the Portland, Ore., minority community, who's found bludgeoned to death after a protest over a police shooting with racial overtones. Careful scrutiny of video footage unearths a couple of meth-headed hoodlums who were in the right place at the right time for the crime. Chuck's partner elicits a confession, and the case seems wrapped. When the ill-gotten confession is deemed inadmissable, the wavering line between loyalty to Chuck and Samantha's prosecutorial integrity becomes the catalyst for a breakup. Meanwhile, budding journalist Heidi Hatmaker, eager to break into the crime beat, studies Crenshaw's cryptic notes and surmises that the reporter's recent surveillance of questionable police activity may have led to his demise. A former deputy DA herself, Burke confidently lays out the procedural details, but she's less sure at rendering complex personal relationships.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Usually, district attorneys and cops play well together; they're both on the same team, after all, trying to rid the streets of crime. But something's gone awry in Portland, Oregon, and Deputy DA Samantha Kincaid finds herself in the middle of a very ugly political battle. Samantha is called to the scene of a brutal murder--the victim being Percy Crenshaw, a well-known investigative reporter. Tension in the DA's office is already high, thanks to a shooting in which a Portland cop, with less than reasonable cause, killed a young mother. An arrest comes quickly in the Crenshaw case, but then one of the suspects recants his confession, claiming police brutality. The deeper Samantha digs, the more cops--including, potentially, her live-in boyfriend--turn on her, and the more it looks like the fix is in. Burke, daughter of author James Lee Burke and once a Portland prosecutor herself, delivers a politically charged, gritty thriller in this third entry in the Samantha Kincaid series. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Praise for Missing Justice:
"[Burke] is definitely a comer and a keeper."
-Chicago Tribune
"Should be required reading for local mystery fans . . . Compelling."
-Portland Oregonian
"Entertaining, complex."
-The Dallas Morning News
Praise for Judgment Calls:
"First-rate, suspenseful entertainment."
-The Washington Post Book World
"Highly recommended."
-Lee Child
"[Burke] is definitely a comer and a keeper."
-Chicago Tribune
"Should be required reading for local mystery fans . . . Compelling."
-Portland Oregonian
"Entertaining, complex."
-The Dallas Morning News
Praise for Judgment Calls:
"First-rate, suspenseful entertainment."
-The Washington Post Book World
"Highly recommended."
-Lee Child
Book Description
Investigating the brutal murder of a hotshot journalist, Samantha Kincaid finds herself caught in the middle of an increasingly personal-and potentially dangerous-struggle between Portland's police and the DA's office
For Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid's thirty-second birthday, she gets an unusual gift: a homicide call out. The crime scene: the elite Hillside neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The victim: hotshot investigative reporter Percy Crenshaw, who has been bludgeoned to death in his carport.
Tensions in the city have been running high. The previous week, a police officer shot and killed an unarmed mother of two in what he claims was self-defense; in the aftermath, protestors have waged increasingly agitated anti-police protests. Crenshaw's death, it seems, is not unrelated: within a matter of hours, police arrest two young men who appear to have embarked on a crime spree in the aftermath of the protests. The case looks straightforward, especially when one of the suspects confesses. But then the man recants, claiming coercive police tactics, and Samantha finds herself digging for more evidence. Following Crenshaw's steps, her search leads her through an elaborate maze of connections between the city's drug trade and officers in the bureau's north precinct.
Samantha's pursuit of the truth puts her in the middle of city political battles and on the outs with the cops, including her new live-in boyfriend, Detective Chuck Forbes. Worse yet, the path left by Crenshaw could lead Samantha to the same fatal end.
With Close Case, Alafair Burke delivers her most suspenseful and powerful novel yet.
For Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid's thirty-second birthday, she gets an unusual gift: a homicide call out. The crime scene: the elite Hillside neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The victim: hotshot investigative reporter Percy Crenshaw, who has been bludgeoned to death in his carport.
Tensions in the city have been running high. The previous week, a police officer shot and killed an unarmed mother of two in what he claims was self-defense; in the aftermath, protestors have waged increasingly agitated anti-police protests. Crenshaw's death, it seems, is not unrelated: within a matter of hours, police arrest two young men who appear to have embarked on a crime spree in the aftermath of the protests. The case looks straightforward, especially when one of the suspects confesses. But then the man recants, claiming coercive police tactics, and Samantha finds herself digging for more evidence. Following Crenshaw's steps, her search leads her through an elaborate maze of connections between the city's drug trade and officers in the bureau's north precinct.
Samantha's pursuit of the truth puts her in the middle of city political battles and on the outs with the cops, including her new live-in boyfriend, Detective Chuck Forbes. Worse yet, the path left by Crenshaw could lead Samantha to the same fatal end.
With Close Case, Alafair Burke delivers her most suspenseful and powerful novel yet.
From the Back Cover
A MURDER TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid likes to be where the action is: at the scene of a crime, at the arrest of a suspect, with the cops on the Major Crimes Team. But when street smart, plugged-in reporter Percy Crenshaw is brutally murdered in the midst of pursuing a major story, she knows the stakes are high…
AN INVESTIGATION TOO CLOSE TO HOME
Within days, cops have a suspect; then a confession. Yet Samantha suspects that something is very wrong, and her concerns keep coming back to the police. The cop who got the confession used tough tactics. The murdered reporter was romantically linked to a cop's wife. And all of the cops she's concerned about are close to her live-in boyfriend, Detective Chuck Forbes.
A CASE TOO CLOSE TO CALL
Forced to prosecute a case in which the defendant may be an innocent man, Samantha must tread carefully to uncover the truth about Percy's murder -- without tearing her career, her home life, and the city apart. But just when she thinks her job can't get any more difficult, another more shocking crime comes to light...
CLOSE CASE
"The author keeps the plot hurtling along…"
--People (a book Pick)
"A politically charged, gritty thriller."
--Booklist
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid likes to be where the action is: at the scene of a crime, at the arrest of a suspect, with the cops on the Major Crimes Team. But when street smart, plugged-in reporter Percy Crenshaw is brutally murdered in the midst of pursuing a major story, she knows the stakes are high…
AN INVESTIGATION TOO CLOSE TO HOME
Within days, cops have a suspect; then a confession. Yet Samantha suspects that something is very wrong, and her concerns keep coming back to the police. The cop who got the confession used tough tactics. The murdered reporter was romantically linked to a cop's wife. And all of the cops she's concerned about are close to her live-in boyfriend, Detective Chuck Forbes.
A CASE TOO CLOSE TO CALL
Forced to prosecute a case in which the defendant may be an innocent man, Samantha must tread carefully to uncover the truth about Percy's murder -- without tearing her career, her home life, and the city apart. But just when she thinks her job can't get any more difficult, another more shocking crime comes to light...
CLOSE CASE
"The author keeps the plot hurtling along…"
--People (a book Pick)
"A politically charged, gritty thriller."
--Booklist
About the Author
A former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, Alafair Burke now teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School. The daughter of acclaimed crime writer James Lee Burke, she is a graduate of Stanford Law School and currently serves as a legal and trial commentator for radio and television programs, including For Court TV. She lives in New York City. Close Case is the third book in the Samantha Kincaid series.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From Close Case:
In my six months in MCU, I had learned that there is only so much I can do as a prosecutor. Even a maximum sentence for the most serious possible charge does not bring back a murder victim or undo the indescribable harm of a sex offense. And, many times, I had to settle for far less. Sometimes it was because a jury convicted a defendant on a lesser charge. Other times, it was a result of plea negotiations required by doubts about the case. Lord knows I had to hold my nose during some of the deals I had brokered.
But I hadn't had anyone walk out of the courthouse yet. Not since the drug unit had I heard a judge tell a defendant, "You're free to go." My pride had always made an acquittal hard to
stomach, even back then. But, now, with rape cases and murders on the line, I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to watch anyone in my caseload rise from the defense table, shake their lawyer's hand, and then simply walk out the door, while I sat there wondering what I could have done differently.
In my six months in MCU, I had learned that there is only so much I can do as a prosecutor. Even a maximum sentence for the most serious possible charge does not bring back a murder victim or undo the indescribable harm of a sex offense. And, many times, I had to settle for far less. Sometimes it was because a jury convicted a defendant on a lesser charge. Other times, it was a result of plea negotiations required by doubts about the case. Lord knows I had to hold my nose during some of the deals I had brokered.
But I hadn't had anyone walk out of the courthouse yet. Not since the drug unit had I heard a judge tell a defendant, "You're free to go." My pride had always made an acquittal hard to
stomach, even back then. But, now, with rape cases and murders on the line, I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to watch anyone in my caseload rise from the defense table, shake their lawyer's hand, and then simply walk out the door, while I sat there wondering what I could have done differently.
From AudioFile
Deputy DA Samantha Kincaid has to prosecute a suspect who may be innocent--there may be a police cover-up with racial overtones. In her personal life her cop boyfriend has just moved in. Alafair Burke's third Kincaid procedural crackles with live-wire tension. The characters are strong, and the plot is fast-paced, but Betty Bobbitt's narration brings things to a screeching halt. Bobbitt's mature, graceful tones simply don't work for smart-talking 32-year-old Kincaid or for the novel's assortment of hard-nosed cops and criminals. While Bobbitt reads intelligently, mispronunciation of regionalisms and awkward phrasing of idioms proves jarring. Still, there's plenty to like here, thanks to smart writing and Burke's insider knowledge of the criminal justice system. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
