Blood Money (Jack Swyteck Novel)
The latest Jack Swyteck legal thriller begins with a controversial not-guilty verdict, a violent act that leaves a young woman in a coma, and accusations of corruption leveled at Jack himself. His client, a woman accused of murdering her daughter because the girl impinged on her carefree lifestyle, is acquitted, but Jack knows there’s a lot more to the case than he’s been allowed to reveal in court. And after a woman who looks startlingly like his client is beaten nearly to death, Jack discovers that this was no weirdly coincidental act of violence but rather a result of something hidden behind the media spectacle surrounding the trial. After a few lethargic Swyteck novels, the author charged back in 2011 with Afraid of the Dark, and this one is similarly energetic, with a story that’s full of twists and turns and, not incidentally, some well-aimed criticisms of the way high-profile trials are covered by the news media. A timely and very well executed story. --David Pitt