A thirteen-year-old girl, Kendra Martin, works as a prostitute to get funds for her heroin habit.  Two men kidnap her and drive to a deserted area of town.  Kendra is beaten and raped.  She is left for dead in an isolated area.  Two young campers found her and called for help.  This saved her life.  Kendra identified one of her attackers as Frank Darringer, who was an ex-con on parole. 

Samantha Kincaid, Deputy District Attorney, takes on the case and decides to go for attempted murder.  Since there appeared to be only circumstantial evidence, others in the department suggested that she go for an assault charge.  However, Samantha was unnerved by the viciousness of the crime and disagreed with just an assault charge.  To make matters worse, her case got even weaker when heroin was found in Kendra's system. 

As Samantha prepares for trail, she encounters danger along the way including a prostitution ring of underage girls and a possible serial killer.

Will Samantha win this case?  Who is the second person involved in the attack? 

Alafair Burke is the daughter of well-known crime writer James Lee Burke.  She certainly inherited her father's skills for writing, even though their styles are quite different.  She was also a former deputy district attorney and now teaches criminal law at Hofstra School of Law.  Her background is a definite plus in writing this type of novel.  Alafair has created a strong character in Samantha Kincaid.  The plot is interesting and Burke makes it all fall into place very smoothly.   This is an excellent legal thriller.  We look forward to the next Samantha Kincaid book!


NANCY EATON

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR, NANCY EATON