Fault Lines

British author Cooper brings back her feisty barrister Trish Maguire (first seen in Creeping Ivy). Trish is in the midst of trying a harrowing child sexual abuse cases when Kara Huggate, a social worker who was supposed to testify on behalf of Trish's client, turns up dead. At first it seems as if Kara might have been the victim of a serial rapist at work in the Kingsford area, but as the investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that the woman was deliberately targeted by someone. Although Trish is reluctant to get involved, when a final letter from Kara inspires her to help a disgraced accountant named Blair Collons, she finds herself inexorably drawn into the circumstances surrounding Kara's death. Although sometimes stiff and awkwardly written, this book--part police procedural and part amateur detective story (Trish seems to accomplish more by stumbling into things than actually working through the problem logically)--manages to weave, in the end, an intricate puzzle. (Apr.)