LAWYER TRAP

The latest from lawyer turned writer Jagger follows a particularly nasty set of murders set against the beauty of the Colorado countryside.

Aspen Wilde, who despite her stripper moniker is a nosy new associate at a big law firm, loses no time diving into trouble on her first day at the new job. That’s when Aspen discovers her former mentor at the firm, Rachel Ringer, has disappeared. The young lawyer decides to defy her bosses and investigate anyway, which complicates things. Meanwhile, Nick Teffinger, a cop who drinks gallons of coffee, urinates at outdoor crime scenes and enjoys an odd arrangement with a gorgeous bisexual who is also a potential suspect in one of the murders, stays busy digging up dead women. As Nick and his partner, Sydney Heatherwood, slowly close in on the killer, the bodies pile up, often courtesy of amoral killer Jack Draven, who circles new victims just ahead of the police. As Draven closes in on his latest target, the tension tightens and builds. Despite an intriguing plot, the book possesses major flaws: The author comes from the tell-not-show school of writing and is relentless in describing the characters down to their ages and wardrobes, and many passages are nothing more than a series of sentence fragments strung together. Jagger’s cops can be uninspired and uninspiring, but the well-crafted story line still makes this a worthwhile read.

Stuffed with gratuitous sex and over-the-top violence, this novel has a riveting plot but could have benefited from better editing.