Leotta shows her strongest suit when she places her action in the courtroom in this pleasing third effort.
Former federal sex-crimes prosecutor Leotta’s third novel propels her protagonist, Anna Curtis, into the dark world of gang violence.
Anna Curtis works as a federal prosecutor on the mean streets of Washington, D.C., where just about anything and everything that can happen does. This time around, the plucky, beautiful, blonde Anna finds herself caught up in a case that leads right back to the vicious Hispanic gang MS-13, or the Mara Salvatrucha, a real-life gang known for its violence and disregard for life and the law. When things go wrong in the bust of a brothel, Anna takes over the prosecution of a gang member caught by police. But even though the case has terrible overtones, Anna is on a personal high because she’s finally agreed to marry the man of her dreams, widower Jack Bailey, head of the homicide division of the federal prosecutor’s office. Along with Jack, Anna inherits Olivia, Jack’s precocious 6-year-old daughter, whose mother, Nina, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty years ago. When Anna’s present case is linked to Nina’s death, Anna pulls the files and finds disturbing information that could lead her to Nina’s as-yet-unidentified killer; but before that can happen, a bombshell is dropped on Anna’s world, and she finds herself being preyed upon by the gang and wondering if her life will ever return to normal. The plot is cohesive, and the details surrounding MS-13 and its particularly virulent brand of violence ring true. Although Anna comes off a bit selfish in her refusal to drop prosecution of the case after being threatened, thus putting Olivia and Jack in danger, too, and an incident of courtroom violence seems far-fetched, the story still works.
Leotta shows her strongest suit when she places her action in the courtroom in this pleasing third effort.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4485-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: “This is America. This is Wyoming.”
Once again, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett gets mixed up in a killing whose principal suspect is his old friend Nate Romanowski, whose attempts to live off the grid keep breaking down in a series of felony charges.
If Judge Hewitt hadn’t bent over to pick up a spoon that had fallen from his dinner table, the sniper set up nearly a mile from his house in the gated community of the Eagle Mountain Club would have ended his life. As it was, the victim was Sue Hewitt, leaving the judge alive and free to rail and threaten anyone he suspected of the shooting. Incoming Twelve Sleep County Sheriff Brendan Kapelow’s interest in using the case to promote his political ambitions and the judge’s inability to see further than his nose make them the perfect targets for a frame-up of Nate, who just wants to be left alone in the middle of nowhere to train his falcons and help his bride, Liv Brannon, raise their baby, Kestrel. Nor are the sniper, the sheriff, and the judge Nate’s only enemies. Orlando Panfile has been sent to Wyoming by the Sinaloan drug cartel to avenge the deaths of the four assassins whose careers Nate and Joe ended last time out (Wolf Pack, 2019). So it’s up to Joe, with some timely data from his librarian wife, Marybeth, to hire a lawyer for Nate, make sure he doesn’t bust out of jail before his trial, identify the real sniper, who continues to take an active role in the proceedings, and somehow protect him from a killer who regards Nate’s arrest as an unwelcome complication. That’s quite a tall order for someone who can’t shoot straight, who keeps wrecking his state-issued vehicles, and whose appalling mother-in-law, Missy Vankeuren Hand, has returned from her latest European jaunt to suck up all the oxygen in Twelve Sleep County to hustle some illegal drugs for her cancer-stricken sixth husband. But fans of this outstanding series will know better than to place their money against Joe.
One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: “This is America. This is Wyoming.”Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-53823-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Part budding romance, part compelling backstory, part prescient tale of racism: provocative on all fronts without being...
In the wake of family tragedy, does an oldest sister’s disappearance point to something even more nefarious?
As a child in Bartonville, Oregon, Emily Mills saw something terrible that she hasn’t been able to forget for 20 years. Even worse than seeing the body of her father, who was white, hanging from a tree in the backyard was seeing her older sister, Tara, at the scene of the crime. Tara leaves town and isn’t heard from again, so Emily can’t ask what she was doing there the fateful night their father was murdered. When their mother takes her own life shortly afterward, Emily and her youngest sister, Madison, never recover from the multiple traumas. Although they do their best to go on running Barton Diner, the family restaurant, Emily fears that her questions may never be answered. Though Chet Carlson was caught and eventually confessed to the crime, he’s still in prison when history seems to repeat itself through a double murder of interracial couple Sean and Lindsay Fitch, with Emily once again cast as the person who finds the bodies. Sean has a KKK sign carved into his head, which reminds Emily of whisperings about her father's racist connections. How else might the crimes be related? Rightfully not trusting the police to do a thorough investigation, Emily calls the FBI, which dispatches agents Zander Wells and Ava McLane to investigate. Elliot (Bred in the Bone, 2019) seems less interested in setting Emily up as part of the crime than in pairing her romantically with Zander. That’s just as well, because the who and why of the crimes feels almost incidental rather than displaying a deeper connection to any larger theme.
Part budding romance, part compelling backstory, part prescient tale of racism: provocative on all fronts without being quite satisfying on any.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-0672-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
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