Akin to Death

Ex-cop turned lawyer, Hannah Barlow and her new partner, Bobby Terry, are working on a fairly routine adoption. Birth mother Laura Benson and new parents Stephen and Rebecca Drummond have just signed the papers when a very agitated Kurt Sundstrum interrupts their celebration claiming to be little Matthew's father. Laura has been less than truthful, and when she dies in suspicious circumstances Hannah travels from her Orange County base up and down the West Coast trying to sort through the tangled lives of her clients and their associates to discover just who wanted Laura dead. Lachnit keeps the twists coming right to the final pages of this third outing for Barlow (Murder in Brief; A Blessed Death); but it also offers greater complexity than much of the usual fare. While working toward a solution, Barlow is forced to examine her own feelings about commitment and belonging and their place in her life. Identity and the desperation to have a child figure prominently in this many-layered clash of generations, expectations and changing mores. (Sept.)