Review: Legal suspense with style and substance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 7, 2014
The second Dana Hargrove legal thriller is a well paced, polished, and highly enjoyable read. I enjoyed the first Dana Hargrove book, THURSDAY’S LIST, but Kemanis has hit her stride with HOMICIDE CHART.Dana is still with the New York District Attorney’s office, but time has moved forward by several years and she’s now married to Evan, a private sector attorney. They have a toddler, Travis. The couple lives in Manhattan and employs a Dutch au pair, Annecke. With two busy careers, the couple depends heavily on the girl, but they don’t know the heavy secret she carries.Neither does the reader at first and Kemanis meters out the suspense in compelling fashion. There are three major plot elements all going on at the same time—Dana’s criminal murder case involving a notorious street gang, Evan’s defamation case for a looney romance author, and Annecke’s increasingly disturbing secret. Points of view move between characters as the action takes us from courtroom to boardroom to the nanny’s woes. Each time the narration switches, the reader is left hungry for more from that plot element, making for great reading all the way through.Each of the three threads is absorbing in its own right, and incorporates a different legal issue. I wondered if they would converge in a climax, or if one would eventually take center stage. The pieces eventually fall into place (no spoilers!) in a highly satisfying way and justice is served in each instance.I received an advance review copy for the purpose of this impartial review. However, it's hard to be impartial when a book is this good. Highly recommended.