Saturday, August 28, 2010

Law of Attraction-Allison Leotta

Law of Attraction
Allison Leotta
Touchstone (Simon and Schuster), Oct 12 2010, $25.00
ISBN: 9781439193846

In Washington D.C. idealistic rookie Anna Curtis has become an Assistant U.S. Attorney. She works domestic violence cases that have required her to remain distant and aloof from the brutality she sees on the faces of the victims. However, on Valentine’s day, Anna loses her detached objectivity when battered Laprea Johnson files a complaint against her boyfriend former con D’Marco Davis, who is defended by Curtis’ Harvard Law School classmate Nick Wagner.

In the courtroom, to Anna’s shock, Laprea, under oath, recants her previous testimony allowing her boyfriend who is also the father of her twin preschoolers to avoid jail. Not long after the case is dismissed, Laprea’s pregnant corpse is found amidst trash as if someone threw out the garbage. Assigned to work with chief homicide detective Jack Bailey, in a case against Davis; Anna is shocked that her boyfriend Wagner since the abuse trial, is representing the accused again. She must choose between her career and her personal life as both teeter; but remains unaware that her life is in peril if she gets to close to the truth.

This is a super legal thriller, which reads very fresh due to the star being a rookie playing in the big leagues. The story line is fast-paced from the first complaint until the final resolution with a nice late twist that diligent readers will see the clues. However, even though the men in her life (her lover the opposing lawyer, the homicide chief, and the accused) are fully developed, this is the tyro’s tale as she works the perilous halls of justice.

Harriet Klausner

No comments: