Killer Ambition

Starred review from April 15, 2013
Rachel Knight finds her professional future on the line in former prosecutor Clark’s suspenseful and gripping third legal thriller featuring the L.A. deputy DA (after 2012’s Guilt by Degrees), the best yet in the series. Teenager Hayley Antonovich has disappeared, and her father, Russell, a blockbuster Hollywood producer, alerts the authorities only after he’s paid the $1 million ransom without getting his child back. Hoping that Hayley can be found alive, Knight and her allies in the LAPD feverishly comb the ransom drop for clues. News that Hayley had been dating 19-year-old Brian Shandling makes the latter an obvious person of interest, but before he can be located, Hayley is found stabbed to death. Knight and her team believe they have identified the killer, but she must use every trick in her trial lawyer’s arsenal to have a hope of prevailing at trial. Clark’s own expertise enables her to realistically portray the drama and vicissitudes of a criminal prosecution. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writer’s House.

July 1, 2013
An amateur kidnapping suddenly turned lethal poses a third case for Deputy District Attorney Rachel Knight, of LA's Special Crimes Unit (Guilt by Degrees, 2012, etc.). It's obvious from the get-go who snatched megabucks Hollywood producer Russell Antonovich's teenage daughter Hayley. All the evidence leads straight to her boyfriend, Brian Shandling. Pleasing complications follow anyway, though they're not so pleasing for Rachel or her friend Bailey Keller, the robbery/homicide detective who lands the case when Antonovich pays the $1 million ransom and his daughter's not returned. Item: Brian Shandling doesn't exist; the boyfriend stole his identity from a long-dead infant. Item: Hayley was almost certainly in on her own kidnapping. Item: Both Hayley and Brian have paid the ultimate price for their little plot, stabbed to death miles from the ransom drop-off point, presumably by someone who got wind of their scheme and stepped in to rewrite the rules. Doing her best to roll with each punch, Rachel follows the forensics to a new pair of suspects and has them arrested, tossing the case into court, where Murphy's Law prevails. When new evidence exonerates one of the two suspects of the actual murders, Rachel reduces the charges against him, and he promptly makes bail and disappears. Jury selection favors nasty defense attorney Terry Fisk. So do the invidious rulings of Judge Osterman. Rachel's star witness gets impeached on the stand. The most sympathetic of the jurors has to discontinue her service. Desperate, Rachel goes behind her boss's back to hire a very iffy consultant, knowing that if she loses the case, she'll get fired. Not to worry. Rachel does it all: from her fine first-half detective work to her routine, overextended courtroom duty. Next time, she'll probably be judge, jury and executioner too.

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Starred review from May 1, 2013
With her third legal thriller featuring L.A. Deputy DA Rachel Knight, former prosecutor Clark delivers another winner. Here the author's alterego becomes involved with Hollywood royalty and all the media attention it entails. It starts when Knight and Detective Bailey Keller begin working on the kidnapping of teenager Hayley Antonovich, only child of megaproducer Russell Antonovich. While the kidnapping turns out to be a ruse devised by Hayley and her boyfriend involving a dispute over the rights to a screenplay, it leads to murder. Trusting forensic evidence, Knight charges a Hollywood insider, a former child star who has become a pillar of the community, with the crimes, thus facing career-ending professional exile if she loses. As the media barrage intensifies, with Knight accused of acting only to get herself in the spotlight, Clark ratchets up the suspense at every turn, with even jury selection becoming a nail-biter. Boasting a feisty protagonist, a winning supporting cast, and steadily escalating courtroom drama, Killer Ambition finds Clark at the top of her game. Legal thrillers don't get much better than this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)