From Amazon.com
Rachel Gold, a St. Louis attorney, doesn't think much of her client's chances for succeeding in an age-discrimination suit against one of the city's biggest engineering firms. Only her mother's plea that she represent Ruth Alpert convinces Rachel to take on what looks like a sure loser, until Ruth mentions her suspicions that her former employer has been involved in rigging bids for government contracts with five other regional construction-related companies. Tracking the bidding process is a tedious job, more suited for a powerful law firm with plenty of resources than for Rachel's more modest practice. But with the help of a law school professor who's an old friend and his eager minions of young students, Rachel soon uncovers a conspiracy that's more than an illegal bidding scam and much older than she is.
Before World War II, Nazis channeled looted gold to anti-Semitic sympathizers in the American Midwest, some of whom are still alive and are closely connected to a contemporary group of Aryan nation skinheads led by a charismatic preacher known as the Spider. Rachel's age-discrimination case quickly morphs into a much deadlier enterprise. The bodies pile up as her key witnesses are murdered and the defendant and his allies move to locate and destroy the 50-year-old evidence that could ruin them. With a fascinating historical background and a likable heroine, this taut little thriller, the sixth in the Rachel Gold series, sheds new light on an obscure era in the American heartland. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
Kahn's latest legal thriller sets his series protagonist (and narrator) against a Goliath law firm and a crew of ex- and neo-Nazis in an intricate St. Louis civil suit. A secretary's age-discrimination case against litigious Beckman Engineering leads Rachel Gold to discover a multimillion-dollar bid-rigging conspiracy, which becomes the basis for a new and far more consequential suit. Beckman's no-goodnik law firm Roth & Bowles retaliate with volleys of counterclaims, metric tons of irrelevant evidence and an array of tactical harassment. Other parties strike back violentlyAan angry ex-wife with all the dirt on Beckman is gunned down before Rachel's eyes. Rachel's lawyer boyfriend, Jonathan Wolf, investigates Missouri's neo-Nazis for the state attorney general; he ties the gunmen to a skinhead group called the Spider. When Rachel, her law professor pal Benny and his students plow through boxes of Beckman info, they discover a six-firm cabal dating back to the 1940s, when an undercover Jewish activist kept tabs on St. Louis's powerful anti-Semites. Could the cabal be linked to the Spider as well? Though much of the plot involves library research, Kahn (a St. Louis lawyer himself) renders it all exciting; what could be bookish tedium becomes a treasure hunt over perilous ground and a chance to look at some of the stranger, darker parts of real Midwestern history. Kahn (Death Benefits; Grave Designs) makes civil law seem almost glamorous. Rachel must confront huge corporations, take on a hostile judge who favors the well-heeled, outmaneuver violent white supremacists and meanwhile try to maintain a love life. Rachel and Jonathan's differing brands of Judaism flesh out both their charactersAand give their romance some comedy, since Jonathan's Orthodox beliefs forbid premarital sex. Though neither his prose nor his people transcend their genre, Kahn's likable characters and well-managed plots make this entertaining read a solid addition to its series. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
