Review
From the book jacket: For Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid's thirty-second birthday, she gets an unusual gift: a homicide call out. The crime scene: the elite Hillside neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The victim: hotshot investigative reporter Percy Crenshaw, who has been bludgeoned to death in his carport....
The case looks straightforward, especially when one of the suspects confesses. But then the man recants, claiming coercive police tactics, and Samantha finds herself digging for more evidence..... her search leads her through an elaborate maze of connections between the city's drug trade and officers in the bureau's north precinct.
Comment: Most critics agree that this is Alafair Burke's best book
yet, but some still feel she's not quite achieving her full potential
.
For example, Kirkus say, "Now that...
Beyond the Book
Close Case is the third in Alafair Burke's Samantha Kincaid series, preceded by
Judgement Calls
(2003) and
Missing Justice
(2004). She is a former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon who now teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School and serves as a legal and trial commentator for radio and
TV programs, including Court TV. She is also the daughter of crime writer, James Lee Burke. When asked whether she feels she's following in the footsteps of her father she says, "Actually, when it comes to mysteries, you could say my father followed in my footsteps. Many people don't know that he published several works before turning to crime fiction with
The Neon Rain, so no one thought of my father as a mystery writer...
