Public Trust

Defense lawyer and single mom Sharon Hays faces formidable odds as counsel for an accused rapist and murderer. Her client wants to negotiate a plea bargain; in exchange, he says, he will reveal the killer in another notorious rape-murder, implying that the wrong man is now on death row for that felony. Hays has to maneuver through a maze of plot twists that include racism, organized crime, government corruption, police dishonesty and kidnapping, not to mention a brief but steamy sexual encounter that seems to have been dropped in from another book. In the same way that a skinny Christmas tree clotted with too many ornaments looks even skinnier, Gregory's overburdened book suffers. There is plenty of courtroom atmosphere, and readers who enjoyed Hays's first outing with In Self Defense may want to follow her here, but this sequel doesn't stand alone. (Mar.)