In British author Cooper's gripping sixth mystery to feature ambitious barrister Trish McGuire (after 2003's A Place of Safety
), Trish joins the prosecution team in a class-action lawsuit against one of Britain's largest food-store chains. Trish finds she has more than a professional interest when she and her friend, Insp. Caro Lyalt, are victims of food poisoning. With Caro in hospital, Trish undertakes her own investigation of the meat trade, with one of the members of the class action as cohort. She also takes on Kim Bowlby, a young child in Caro's protective custody. With the men in her life vacationing on the other side of the world, Trish is free to carry on a flirtation with the Head of Chambers, who may have something more serious in mind. The suspense builds, as Cooper deftly interweaves the several plot lines. Is the person whose help she enlists in looking into the meat trade as trustworthy as Trish supposes? What terror keeps Kim mute? Anglophiles will enjoy the glimpses of the Inns of Court and the British civil court system, though some may scratch their heads at the more obscure British legalese (e.g., "to take silk"). More attractive and sympathetic than Insp. Jane Tennyson of Mystery!
fame, Trish is a natural for adaptation by British TV. (Oct. 29)
