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COLD JUSTICE
by Jonnie Jacobs
Kensington, July 2002
363 pages
$23.00
ISBN: 1575668270


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

A florist box containing a single yellow rose and a love message. Very romantic, yes? Not exactly. The rose and message are the trademarks of the Bay Area Strangler, who terrorized women in the San Francisco/Oakland area eight years ago. Kali O'Brien and her law school friend were part of the prosecution team that convicted Daryl Davis of the multiple murders. He has just recently been executed, and the lead prosecutor, Owen Nelson, now District Attorney, is running for governor.

However, on the night she was to have dinner with Kali to discuss a partnership, Anne Bailey is murdered. Her husband, from whom she separated on a trial basis, concludes that she was cheating on him when a box with a yellow rose and a love poem is delivered. The next victim is a real estate agent, followed by the daughter of a woman on the Davis jury -- and then, the killer hopes, Kali. Owen is in a quandary. He became District Attorney as the result of his successful prosecution of Daryl Davis and is now running for governor on the strength of that reputation. That he is well ahead in the polls leads Kali to surmise that his political opponents might have set up the killings to make Owen look bad. Meantime, Owen must deal with his surly 23-year-old son, who has idolized in death a mother he scorned in her life and who refuses to accept Owen's new wife. Owen begs Kali to take a temporary appointment in the District Attorney's office to investigate the case. She agrees out of loyalty to Owen and to the memory of Anne Bailey. Just as a likely lead crops up, it turns out to be a dead end.

Kali is also dealing with some personal issues. When she was waiting for Anne at the restaurant, a drunken lout invited himself to her table. She is rescued by an attractive young man, Nelson Sloane. Instead of being grateful to him for stepping in, she bristles and says she could have handled the situation herself -- though there is no evidence of that. Sloane, who presents himself as an employee of Global Investments, tracks Kali down through the date book she dropped in the restaurant. He begins an almost relentless pursuit of her. Kali is also juggling her attraction -- which is mutual -- to one of the police officers working on the case, and she is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the appropriate professional distance. The plot is well crafted, illustrating -- without boring the reader -- that much police work is drudgery and leads to one dead end after another.

The characterization is very strong. Especially poignant is the policeman who visits his wife (comatose as the result of an auto accident) daily and reads to her -- from Jane Austen to Harry Potter. Other standouts are Margot, Kali's transsexual neighbor and friend, and Bryce Keating, the policeman with a reputation as a womanizer, one which he confides to Kali is unfounded.

Jacobs handles the ending very well, but the reader leaves with sadness at so many promising lives destroyed.

Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, August 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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