✍ Scribed by Dennis Carstens
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Dennis Carstens serves up a graphic throwback legal thriller in his fourth Marc Kadella installment, and this one’s dripping with suspense, one part captivating courtroom drama—one part grisly serial killer murder mystery. Marc is confronted with his sordid professional past when a series of violent criminal cases are overturned—and some of the Twin Cities’ nastiest chickens come home to roost.
We promise: you’ll need to read this one to the end.
Thirteen years ago, Jimmy “Little” Oliver was an accomplished (although diminutive) career burglar. He was no character out of Ocean’s Eleven , but he was reliable. And he knew how to case a joint. His partner was Howie “Big” Traynor, a bit younger than his cohort, and far more ruthless. Truth be told, Howie was a sociopath—and he scared the hell out of everyone, Jimmy included.
So when a home robbery-gone-wrong ended up in murder, Jimmy didn’t think twice before turning his partner in. And rising-star criminal lawyer Marc Kadella was saddled with Howie’s defense.
Marc was torn about his work for Howie—his first homicide case—but even he was relieved when Howie was put away for forty years… Until, a decade later, his case is re-opened. Seems the former tech in the BCA lab was falsifying DNA evidence to collude with cops in putting away suspected violent criminals.And now not only Howie, but a handful of wrongfully-accused felons, are back out on the streets.
Marc and his longtime buddy PI Tony Caravelli don’t buy Howie’s come-to-Jesus act. And when an appeals judge with ties to the overturned cases winds up crucified in his own front yard, they’re convinced a dangerous killer has been wrongfully exonerated.**
**
Carsten’s wry dialogue and gritty realism shine here as Marc and his old friends in the police force band together to solve a series of brutal murders at the hands of a psychotic vigilante who isn’t slowing down. This is a unique kind of killer: one who knows the police force and takes a terrifying amount of pleasure in keeping them on their toes. One by one, lawyers and judges connected to the exonerated criminals turn up dead. And Marc’s pretty sure he’s next.
Mystery
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