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When famous New York City television journalist Suzanne Shepard is found brutally raped and murdered in Central Park, federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas seizes the case to find out who killed the reporter. With the help of a large team of law enforcement people that includes her boyfriend, FBI Agent Dan O'Reilly, Melanie is sure that she will find the murderer, now called 'The Butcher' by the press, quickly. But things get complicated very early on. Suzanne Shepard was working on a few stories at the time of her death. One was about a fitness trainer who was selling drugs; another story was about a Park Avenue plastic surgeon. She had also broken publicly a story about a politician who was having an affair with a very young woman. A week before she was killed, Shepard's apartment had been broken into and the files she had on the fitness trainer and the doctor were stolen. Melanie has to investigate the men involved but there is a conflict of interest since the politician has a son who not only works in Melanie's office as a prosecutor but is also her good friend. Shepard's news station thinks that Melanie is trying to cover for the politician and they are making things difficult for her. And suddenly Melanie starts to receive threatening emails from 'The Butcher' saying that he is going to kill her in the most gruesome of ways. COVER-UP by Michele Martinez is the third in the Melanie Vargas series. The book is fast-paced and easy to read but I'm afraid I am not fond of some of the people in the story, including the main character. In this book, Melanie is just plain annoying. She's written as being beautiful, bright, and a loving single mother and altogether too perfect for my taste. She's overly jealous of her boyfriend and argues with him about his ex-wife. Throughout the book a deadly murderer and a vindictive vicious television news reporter are stalking Melanie, but for some foolish reason she keeps rejecting as important any suspicion she has when she thinks someone is following her. In addition, the district attorney who is supposedly helping Melanie is ridiculously slow-witted and is ready to accuse anyone of the murder. Martinez also throws in some sex scenes, which, in my opinion, this book could have done without. 'The Butcher' threatens Melanie but the fact that a mad killer wants her dead doesn't seem to bother her as she and her boyfriend have sex in her office. Also, she seems to forger that having sex in your office is a poor career move for a woman who would like to be respected and wants to go further in her field. I'm not saying that COVER-UP is a bad book, because it isn't. The mystery is quite good, but the way Melanie handles herself as a prosecutor and conducts her personal life just took a lot away from the integrity of the story. Pick up COVER-UP for a good mystery, but hopefully author Michele Martinez will improve her main character for the next volume in the series.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, April 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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