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Close Case
Samantha Kincaid Mysteries

by Alafair Burke



      Author Alafair Burke returns in her third outing, Close Case, featuring Portland, Oregon's up-and-coming Major Crimes Unit prosecutor Samantha Kincaid. This time, Samantha becomes involved in the murder of a well-known reporter, Percy Crenshaw. The sticky part is that Percy is black and was apparently murdered by two white young men. This is coming not long after an officer of the Portland Police Department has been involved in the shooting of a black woman, Dolores Tompkins, an unarmed mother of two who'd had the misfortune of being stopped by a young officer named Geoff Hamilton. Of course, Hamilton was white.

     Naturally, the DA's office wanted to put this behind them as quickly as possible. The DA put Samantha Kincaid on it, knowing she was tenacious, accurate, and would settle for nothing less than ironclad case. However, it wasn't going to be that simple.

      First, there were no witnesses to the crime. Percy Crenshaw had been bludgeoned to death next to his car with a blunt instrument. The only witness to anything was the apartment building's super, Peter Anderson. It was he who identified the young men he had seen in the parking lot earlier. There was very little physical evidence, mostly just a photo from a security camera showing the two young men with a baseball bat. They still had to find the murder weapon.

     Close Case is not just the story of a crime investigation. It also details how that investigation can play havoc with the lives of those doing the investigating. Relationships become strained almost to the breaking point as Samantha struggles to find out who killed Percy Crenshaw. Then, she inherits the responsibility of finding out if Geoff Hamilton shot Dolores in an effort to defend himself as he claimed. Or did he commit a murder? Pick up a copy of Close Case and enjoy a delightful murder mystery.

The Book

Henry Holt
July 6, 2005
Hardcover
0-8050-7784-7
Mystery
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE: Contains violence, bad language and sexual situations

The Reviewer

Jo Rogers
Reviewed 2005
NOTE:
© 2005 MyShelf.com