About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

MISSING JUSTICE
by Alafair Burke
Orion, November 2004
368 pages
12.99GBP
ISBN: 0752857169


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Deputy DA Samantha Kincaid's first assignment as part of Portland's Major Crimes Team (MCT) looks like a formality: a simple missing person enquiry. Sam has been invited to attend the scene solely because the missing person is a wealthy and well-connected judge.

When the judge's disappearance takes a sinister turn, Sam finds herself acting as investigator as well as prosecutor. To complicate matters, her relationship with one of the MCT detectives comes under scrutiny, as does her penchant for challenging authority. It begins to look as though Kincaid's first job for MCT may be her last, particularly when she finds herself unable to accept at face value the prosecution case which she herself helped to build.

Along the way Kincaid has to ask some unpalatable questions about the true character of the victim. Did she somehow invite disaster? Was she the person her husband and friends believed her to be? And what is the significance of the mysterious artifacts located after her death?

The result is an unconventional and largely unofficial investigation, in which Kincaid has to enlist any ally she can -­ even when they appear to be working for the opposition. Alafair Burke has woven a well-paced blend of police procedure, whodunit and legal drama which builds to a satisfying conclusion.

The glue which binds this tale together is Samantha Kincaid's fraught professional life. Her run-ins with colleagues and superiors constantly threaten to undermine her position, and the way she manipulates those around her, in the interests of justice (and of staying employed) sets a context for the detailed and well-researched legal arguments which punctuate the story. Author Alafair Burke is a former deputy DA from Portland, and she uses her knowledge of the city and of Oregon law to lend credibility and depth to her story-telling.

I imagine that Alafair Burke didn't investigate too many murders personally in her career, and I certainly hope she didn't expose herself to danger in the manner of her fictional character. As with all fiction, and especially crime fiction, we have to be willing to suspend disbelief in the interests of narrative flow. This is definitely helped by Burke's fluid, easy style and Kincaid's attractive personality. In a first person narrative it helps to have a likeable narrator, and Kincaid is appealing, warm and very human. That she also happens to be a woman may be an attraction for some readers; it certainly wasn't any kind of a drawback for this (male) reviewer.

MISSING JUSTICE is an intelligent, enjoyable easy read with sufficient depth to sustain the reader's interest to its conclusion. I will certainly look forward to the next Samantha Kincaid mystery.

Reviewed by Jim Sullivan, July 2004

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]