Black River
Mobster Nicholas Balagula cut so many corners when he built a new  children's hospital that 63 people died when it collapsed. Now he's up on murder  charges, and Seattle true-crime writer Frank Corso, who watched Balagula's first  two trials end disastrously when witnesses disappeared and jurors were bought  off, is back in court for the third one, which looks like a slam dunk for the  prosecution. Then Frank's former girlfriend, photojournalist Meg Dougherty, is  brutally attacked after stumbling on a connection between a story she's  following and the one Frank's hoping to turn into another bestseller. Corso,  making his second appearance here (afterFury), is a quirky, engaging  protagonist who grows on the reader, much like Leo Waterman, the laid-back hero  of G.M. Ford's other series. Ford is a deft stylist whose characters are usually  more interesting and less predictable than his plots; maybe he'll give Corso  more to work with next time around.--Jane Adams--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.