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City and federal prosecutors must deal with the depredations of a clever Russian mobster in this highly evocative legal thriller. Assistant District Attorney Jamie Jefferson is overworked, underpaid, and still emotionally fragile after a devastating experience with a predatory high school teacher that prompted her best friend's suicide fifteen years before. The confusing era of her life leads Jamie to law school and the Special Victims Unit in the New York City DA's office, where she prosecutes similar crimes.
Assistant US Attorney Rostislav Gutin, a Juilliard-trained violinist, similarly embarked upon a legal career after his father's brutal murder. Peter Federov, a notorious businessman well-known in the Russian mob, is the suspect, but Gutin has not yet found clear evidence after a decade of investigation. Jefferson's and Gutin's legal worlds converge and collide when Federov's grandson, Alexander, calls 911 after his high-school friend is raped at one of his grandfather's clubs, revealing a toxic spiderweb of intrigue that affects not only the principal characters but their families, friends, and coworkers.
Author Anolic deftly weaves a plot with high stakes for all her characters, and most especially for ADA Jamie Jefferson, whose involvement with her young Russian victim and witness becomes overly personal, jeopardizing all that she's worked for since high school. The simple but effective prose is mostly invisible, allowing readers to immerse themselves within the ever-rising tension and grief that permeate nearly every scene. There is no character without secrets or a secret motivation, and so the tale is simultaneously plot- and character-driven. The novel will also appeal to both adult and mature young adult readers with its themes of physical and emotional abuse that must be handled outside family or community guidance and brought to light within the harsh glare of law enforcement and the judicial system.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review