In Kane's second suspenseful Jackie Flowers novel (after 2000's Blind Spot
), the dogged defense attorney reluctantly takes on as a client a former law professor of hers, now a federal judge, who once told her she'd never make it as a lawyer. Unlike a lot of fictional crime investigators, Flowers is neither superwoman nor a haunted, driven loner. Instead, she relies on her eccentric friends, including an accomplished arsonist, for help. Her frustrations with her dyslexia add to the picture of a struggling, stubborn and highly appealing woman. Every new bit of information she stumbles on seems only to strengthen the argument of the prosecution, led by Flowers's nemesis, Phyllis Klein, against the hard-nosed defendant Glenn Ballard. In this careful portrait, the reader feels a sliver of sympathy in addition to the predictable aversion. Ballard is accused of kidnapping and torturing Amy Lynch, a college student and daughter of a rich businessman. When Lynch dies of exposure while escaping her captor, the charge becomes murder. That Ballard's cabin and handcuffs were used in the crime is damning enough, but the discovery of a videotape apparently filmed during the torture makes Flowers despair of ever clearing her client. The eventual solution to the mystery is perhaps a little far-fetched, but satisfying nonetheless. (Nov. 11)
