Discretion

May 14, 2012
Leotta’s second legal thriller featuring D.C. sex crimes prosecutor Anna Curtis (after 2010’s Law of Attraction) adds nothing new to the murder and sex among the Washington elite subgenre popularized by writers like David Baldacci. When escort Caroline McBride plunges to her death from the third-floor balcony of longtime District representative Emmett Lionel’s Capitol office, Anna investigates. By creating a covert account on TrickAdviser.com, an escort resource Web site, Anna learns that the victim was “the most expensive call girl in D.C.” The high-profile case threatens to expose Anna’s discreet relationship with her office’s head of homicide, widower Jack Bailey. To complicate matters, Lionel invokes the obscure Speech and Debate Clause to limit searching of his office, while his legal and political advisers throw up further obstacles. Anna’s efforts to win over Jack’s hostile six-year-old daughter lend human interest. Those who can’t get enough of Washington scandal in their fiction will be most rewarded. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House.

June 15, 2012

Caroline McBride, top escort for the Discretion agency, is tossed to her death from a Washington, DC, congressman's balcony. Anna Curtis, fresh out of Harvard Law and an assistant U.S. attorney specializing in sex crimes and domestic violence, is temporarily assigned to the homicide division, which makes her secret lover her new boss. FBI Special Agent Samantha Randozzo isn't keen on Anna's help, but they work together to bring Discretion's madam to court to compel her to reveal records that surely will affect many of Washington's elite, but then the madam is murdered. VERDICT Leotta, a Harvard Law grad and veteran of the same job as her heroine, movingly portrays the personal anguish and moral ambiguities surrounding the sex business. Like George Pelecanos, she knows well the underbelly of our nation's capital, although her social concerns sometimes intrude on an otherwise fast-paced and twisting plot. Legal thriller and romance novel blend well in this second thriller featuring Anna (Law of Attraction), and a third is on its way.--Roland C. Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2012
Former federal prosecutor Leotta covers some familiar ground in her second legal thriller. Anna Curtis, the plucky blonde lawyer in the government's D.C. Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence Unit, surfaces for a second go-round with the capital city's seamier side following the murder of a high-price escort, which implicates a congressman. This time, Anna teams up with her boyfriend, head of the homicide division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Jack Bailey, who is a widower with an adorable 6-year-old named Olivia. Jack and Anna have been seeing one another on the sly for about six months and living together in his suburban home. When escort Caroline McBride takes the plunge off D.C. Congressman Lionel's balcony at the Capitol, both Jack and Anna are called in. Jack requests Anna's assistance and soon she, along with feisty and somewhat combative FBI agent Samantha Randazzo, is hot on the trail of the city's top madam, who operates a high-priced and very hush-hush escort agency called Discretion. The agency caters to the city's powerful and wealthy, and soon, both Anna and Sam discover that some members of the agency's clientele might do anything to keep certain information about their activities from getting to the press. In addition to trying to solve Caroline's murder, Anna and Jack have reached a crisis point in their relationship, and the two try to work through their issues without letting them affect the case or their professional relationship. Leotta's writing has bumped up a notch since her first novel; this story's well-plotted, and although the outcome isn't nearly as surprising as it should be, it's much more believable. One drawback: The author describes in excruciating detail even the most minor characters, their wardrobes and the decor of the rooms they are in, which proves a major distraction from the action. Better editing could have made this memorable, but even with Leotta's tendency to provide character fashion reports on every page, this is worth the read.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.