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CLOSE CASE
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Henry Holt and Company, July 2005
Reviewed by Barbara Fielding
CLOSE CASE is Alafair Burke's third installment in
the remarkable Samantha Kincaid Mystery Series. On her thirty-second
birthday Samantha Kincaid, Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon,
lands a high-profile homicide case.
Percy Crenshaw, investigative reporter for The
Oregonian, is found beaten to death in the carport of his elite
Hillside condo. His death follows a night of street riots and
demonstrations caused by the police shooting, a few days earlier, of
Delores Tompkins. Delores was an unarmed, African-American mother of
two. Both cases will come under the glare of the media circus and land
in Samantha Kincaid's lap.
When Detective Mike Calabrese, her boyfriend's
partner, gets a confession from a suspect for Crenshaw's murder using
questionable tactics, her relationship with live-in lover Chuck Forbes
becomes a bit complicated. Kincaid finds herself caught between her
professional ethics and personal loyalties.
CLOSE CASE strikes a nice balance between serious
fiction and Kincaid's entertaining personal life. Samantha is
an energetic and engaging character. She's a smart woman who is willing
to take risks for the things she believes in, yet vulnerable enough to
shed a few tears. I truly enjoyed this character and was pleased to find
she isn't hard-bitten or cynical. In fact, she is adorably sappy about
her French bulldog, Vinnie. It's through her eyes that we view the
complicated legal developments and unfolding mystery surrounding these
two deaths. If you are looking for a realistic crime drama packed with
likable characters, you can count on Ms. Burke to deliver.
JUDGMENT CALLS (May 2003) was Alafair Burke's debut
novel featuring Samantha Kincaid, followed by MISSING JUSTICE (June
2004). Burke has a background in the legal profession as a former
district attorney in Portland. A graduate of Stanford Law School she
teaches at Hofstra Law School. Alafair is the daughter of best-selling
crime fiction writer, James Lee Burke.
July 2005
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