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In the second Dana Hargrove legal thriller from V.S. Kemanis, Dana Hargrove is back in the courtroom as a high profile, New York prosecutor. She's in the midst of a series of murder cases involving gang members, while her husband, Evan, now works at his private law firm and Anneke, the live-in au pair, cares for their son, Travis, at home. Dana and Evan are both hard working parents, trying to maintain a home life that offers escape and peace from their lucrative, busy careers and the difficult cases they often face. Dana is also a member of the unique "homicide chart," a list of people that are on-call to respond to crime scenes and murders at any given time. One night Dana receives a late night call to investigate a murder just as Anneke's mysterious past catches up to her that unwittingly endangers them all. Dana must reevaluate everything she thought she knew and seek answers in a case that strangely hits close to home.
Kemanis' second novel in the Dana Hargrove series is a page turner, expertly written and well crafted. Kemanis seamlessly juxtaposes Dana's life inside the courtroom and at home against that of the vulnerable Anneke, with her personal and desperate attempt to resolve the issues of her mysterious past. The novel really gains speed in the second half as Dana, bewildered and caught off guard by the events unfolding around her, must delve deeper into a murder case that becomes personal. Deftly plotted with characters that portray real, human emotions, Kemanis is a writer of high caliber worth noting and this is a novel well worth reading.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review