Killing in the Valley

January 2, 2006
Set in Southern California, this legal thriller from Freedman (Against the Wind) opens with a brutal date rape and murder. After the victim's corpse is found on the grounds of the estate of Juanita McCoy, one of Santa Barbara's leading citizens, suspicion soon focuses on one of the few people to have access to the area, her hunky grandson, Steven McCoy. When Steven's prints are found on the murder weapon, he's charged, and the author's series characters, former DA Luke Garrison and single-mom PI Kate Blanchard, are enlisted in his defense. Readers expecting gripping courtroom scenes will feel cheated that the murder trial's highlights-the testimony of the accused and Garrison's summation-are disposed of in a few summary sentences.