β Scribed by David Rosenfelt
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Jamie Wagner is a young lawyer who is happy to be flying under the radar at a large firm. Its not that he isnt smart. He is. Its just that hard work, not to mention the whole legal thing, isnt exactly his passion. Underachiever? A little. Content? Right up until the firm puts him on a case that turns his whole world upside down.
Sheryl Harrison has served four years of a thirty-year murder sentence for killing her husband, who she claims was abusive. The case is settled---there shouldnt be anything for Jamie to do---except Sheryls fourteen-year-old daughter, Karen, is sick. She has a congenital heart defect and will die without a transplant. Her blood type is rare, making their chances of finding a matching donor remote at best. Sheryl wants to be that donor for her daughter, and Jamie is in way over his head. Suicide, no matter the motive, is illegal. So with Sheryl on suicide watch, Jamies only shot at helping her and saving Karen is to reopen the murder case, prove Sheryls innocence, and get her freed so that she can pursue her plan on her own.
Heart of a Killer---a gripping story of an ordinary man faced with an impossible situation---is the most powerful and shocking thriller yet from David Rosenfelt, a true master of the genre.
Heres what seems to be a winning combination: a popular and accomplished novelist, a likable hero, and two themes of overwhelming importance. The result? Readers will likely turn the last page and wonder what went wrong. The main plot involves assisted suicide. A woman jailed for murder wants to be killed and have her heart given to her dying daughter. Officialdom resists, so the case must go to court. Next, computers. They control everything, so someone controlling them can crash an airplane, burn a car, and melt down a nuclear-power plant. All these thingsand morehappen here. The plots converge midbook, when Jamie Wagner, the lawyer hired by the prisoner who wants to die, finds himself battling a crazed computer maven. The wisecracking Wagner would be fine in a different novel, but herein a book dealing with such portentous mattershes the wrong man. When things grow ominous, he jokes about his hatred of work and lack of ambition, scuttling the tone and keeping the reader distant from the plot. A good character and a gripping story, but they simply dont mix. Stick with Rosenfelt, though; he can write, despite this misstep. --Don Crinklaw
Praise for David Rosenfelt
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
Contract killer Santana Masters doesnt need anyone or anything except her next assignment and the lucrative payment that goes with it. Her life is just the way she likes it, well-ordered and intentionally devoid of emotion. Then a chance meeting with a beautiful stranger tempts her to do the one thi
Contract killer Santana Masters doesnt need anyone or anything except her next assignment and the lucrative payment that goes with it. Her life is just the way she likes it, well-ordered and intentionally devoid of emotion. Then a chance meeting with a beautiful stranger tempts her to do the one thi
### From Publishers Weekly At the start of bestseller Fairstein's nail-biting 10th legal thriller to feature alter ego Alex Cooper (after 2006's *Bad Blood*), the Manhattan ADA takes a hit from a cigar at the urging of her longtime police ally, Mike Chapmanβto cover the stench of a badly decomposed
It's August in New York, and the only thing that's hotter than the pavement is Manhattan D.A. Alex Cooper's personal and professional life. Just as she's claiming an especially gratifying victory in a rape case, she gets the call: the body of a young woman has been found in an abandoned building. Th
Taking on a subject that is still largely avoided in Japan, this powerful thriller explores the threat posed by an emperor, even in a ceremonial role, to a democratic government. Set in a fictional island country, the novel is told from the perspective of a group of young adults who are embroiled in