Buried Evidence

Rosenberg cannot be accused of pandering to the reader. One is never sure who to root for in her latest kinetic crime thriller, as usual set in Southern California. The protagonist of Mitigating Circumstances, feisty, red-headed Lily Forrester, formerly of the Ventura DA's office, is now DA in Santa Barbara. Her ex-husband, John Forrester, who has been living with their 18-year-old daughter, Shana, is losing his battle with the bottle and has been arrested for vehicular manslaughter. He was driving Shana's car when he hit and killed a young man--a student, like Shana, at UCLA. John blackmails Lily into bailing him out of jail, bartering Lily's secret in an effort to escape prosecution. (Six years before, Shana was brutally raped while Lily was forced to look on, and Lily shot and killed the wrong man in retaliation.) The real rapist has recently been released on parole and is once again stalking the two women. Enter Lily's former love-interest, Richard Fowler, who resurfaces in her life as the lawyer for a man Lily is prosecuting for attempting to poison his handicapped daughter. Richard ends up representing Lily (after dumping his live-in girlfriend) when the police attempt to sort out the many subplots and solve a six-year-old crime no one really cares about. Rosenberg addresses questions of conscience: the man Lily shot was himself a serial killer. Should she be prosecuted for bumping him off? Prone to hysteria, whining and selfishness, the characters presented here are barely likable. Still, the plot presents a compelling moral dilemma, the action is fast-paced and the pages turn easily. $300,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author appearances in Los Angeles and New York. (Sept.)