_Missing Justice_
by Alafair Burke
read by Betty Bobbit
second book in the Samantha Kincaid series of mysteries
In Samantha Kincaid's first case for the Portland Police Bureau and
Portland Attorney General's Major Case Unit, she managed to ruffle more
than a few feathers among sex traffickers in Portland's red light
district and ended up fighting off assassins who came into her home
intending to end her interference and her life simultaneously. After a
few weeks in Hawaii with her friend Grace, Sam is back on the job, now
permanently assigned to the Major Case Unit--definitely a step up from
the drugs and vice cases she'd prosecuted to date.
When a judge from the City Attorney's Office, one who'd handled
complaints against city departments, went missing everyone assumed
she'd gone willful-missing and would contact her successful doctor
husband soon either to tell him the marriage was over or to ask if she
could come home. Instead, a few days later her body was found near a
site where a commercial strip mall was being built, and the missing
person's case became a murder investigation.
A young black father, a recovering addict intent on raising his three
kids now that he was sober and no longer associated with their active
junkie mom, was accused of the murder. After all, the judge hadn't
been able so far to get the public housing authority to relax their
zero-tolerance policy that indicated he had to be evicted when a
visiting cousin was caught smoking pot within the property of the
complex. As his communications with the female judge grew increasingly
frantic and aggressive, it appeared they had a slam-dunk case against
him, particularly as cans of paint found splattered on the victim's
dog's coat were found in his van and the murder weapon was found on a
shelf in his closet.
But there were signs of hinky activities by some of the region's
biggest commercial wheeler-and-dealers, and Samantha isn't the type to
let an apparently air-tight case lie if it appears the prime suspect
has somehow been framed....
A very well-written story, again read by Betty Bobbit, whose tendency
to put the ax cent on the wrong sill ab bell does tend to annoy, but
not enough to damage my interest in the story. It's not just
Willamette she botches this time, but more common words such as
autopsy. Still a well researched and realistic read with characters
one can sympathize with, even the murderer!
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
