- Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
- Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (1 Feb 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 055358359X
- ISBN-13: 978-0553583595
- Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 2.7 x 17.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 116,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns with a thriller that begins with a shocking crime scene you’ll never forget and follows two relentless detectives on a manhunt that ends in a chilling confrontation with the essence of human evil.
It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl’s prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry—and puts the judge in grave danger.
When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis’s top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn’t far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.
The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped—snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.
With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.
From the Hardcover edition.
It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl’s prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry—and puts the judge in grave danger.
When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis’s top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn’t far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.
The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped—snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.
With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is fast, detailed and frightening. A super thriller that had me hooked from the outset. There are the obvious love interests but in this case it feels more natural than cliched.
Carey Moore is a Judge who has worked very hard to get where she is. Faced with Karl Dahl who is deemed to be a brutal killer (the crime is truly horrific) she is the only one who seems to be preventing him being kept in custody. She hits the media spotlight when she rules that his prior bad acts are inadmissable.
Detective Sam Kovac and his partner Nikki Liska are called in as protection. Dahl escapes and this thriller begins. Great characters, plot and narrative; this novel is difficult to put down. Hoag's writing involves the reader and occasionally some chapters begin with a character picking up from another character in a previous chapter.
It is difficult to discuss too much of the plot for this novel without spoiling it but (as is not always the case) the praise quotes are generally accurate. Highly enjoyable from the great beginning to a thrilling ending.
Carey Moore is a Judge who has worked very hard to get where she is. Faced with Karl Dahl who is deemed to be a brutal killer (the crime is truly horrific) she is the only one who seems to be preventing him being kept in custody. She hits the media spotlight when she rules that his prior bad acts are inadmissable.
Detective Sam Kovac and his partner Nikki Liska are called in as protection. Dahl escapes and this thriller begins. Great characters, plot and narrative; this novel is difficult to put down. Hoag's writing involves the reader and occasionally some chapters begin with a character picking up from another character in a previous chapter.
It is difficult to discuss too much of the plot for this novel without spoiling it but (as is not always the case) the praise quotes are generally accurate. Highly enjoyable from the great beginning to a thrilling ending.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I bought this book not releasing it is Dead Sky (which i already had) under a different name.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
It seems as if justice has, for once, been served on Judge Moore. After her controversial decision not to allow records of prior criminal acts to be admissible in a multiple murder trial, there would have to be more than one person out there who had reason to do the judge serious harm. Carey Moore is delivered a savage beating in the car park across from her office and becomes what she often sees on the other side of the bench, a frightened and angry victim. Detectives Sam Kovac and NIkki Liska (first introduced in Hoag's ASHES TO ASHES, released in 1999) are assigned to protect the cowed Judge and her family as the media runs with the very newsworthy story, swiftly making camp on the Judge's immaculate front lawn before she even returns from the hospital. The Haas murders were the worst ever encountered by the Hennipin Police Department and haven't been forgotten by a grieving community either, eager to see the accused Karl Dahl punished for taking the life of a mother and those of her two foster children.
Sam Kovac can understand why someone would have it in for the judge, whilst never forgetting what his job of protecting one of the senior members of the judiciary entails. Never one to hide from his professional responsibility, Kovac ignores criticism of his tactics and takes the investigation right back to the home, invading the Judge's personal life to the point where the two begin to form a bond. It is unbelievable to him when the Judge is kidnapped from her home with a police presence outside, and even more unbelievable that the accused Dahl also manages to escape during a prison transfer. With so much ground to cover, literally and otherwise, Kovac and Liska must go separate ways, reopening old wounds for the surviving family and the former detective who had hung his whole career on this one murder case. With three possible suspects sharing equal space in Kovac's sights, the detective must make a fast choice of which to pursue in order to save Carey Moore's life.
The Kovac and Liska novels, three to date, are the edgiest of author Tami Hoag's collected works. There are many reasons to read the work of this author who can deliver the goods across many genres; romantic fiction, romantic suspense and crime/American police procedurals. The character of Sam Kovac is quite irresistible and makes a welcome return in PRIOR BAD ACTS, a multi-perspective novel that has enough of a window with each viewpoint to tease the reader into musing who it is that is harbouring the greatest grudge. The dialogue between the two detectives, and between all of the police, is a definite plus to lighten up what could be otherwise be a heavy emotional load with all the death and vengeance that is doled out over the pages.
Hoag definitely has the gift of making much with simple description and does not allow either action or the internal monologues in each scene to dominate, always presenting the tableaux for reader supposition. Fast and entertaining, PRIOR BAD ACTS will not likely present much of a challenge in the whodunit stakes, but as there is a secondary crime in addition to the murders Hoag has kept all detail relevant and wasted little with both cases being, as they always are in mystery reads, intertwined.
Sam Kovac can understand why someone would have it in for the judge, whilst never forgetting what his job of protecting one of the senior members of the judiciary entails. Never one to hide from his professional responsibility, Kovac ignores criticism of his tactics and takes the investigation right back to the home, invading the Judge's personal life to the point where the two begin to form a bond. It is unbelievable to him when the Judge is kidnapped from her home with a police presence outside, and even more unbelievable that the accused Dahl also manages to escape during a prison transfer. With so much ground to cover, literally and otherwise, Kovac and Liska must go separate ways, reopening old wounds for the surviving family and the former detective who had hung his whole career on this one murder case. With three possible suspects sharing equal space in Kovac's sights, the detective must make a fast choice of which to pursue in order to save Carey Moore's life.
The Kovac and Liska novels, three to date, are the edgiest of author Tami Hoag's collected works. There are many reasons to read the work of this author who can deliver the goods across many genres; romantic fiction, romantic suspense and crime/American police procedurals. The character of Sam Kovac is quite irresistible and makes a welcome return in PRIOR BAD ACTS, a multi-perspective novel that has enough of a window with each viewpoint to tease the reader into musing who it is that is harbouring the greatest grudge. The dialogue between the two detectives, and between all of the police, is a definite plus to lighten up what could be otherwise be a heavy emotional load with all the death and vengeance that is doled out over the pages.
Hoag definitely has the gift of making much with simple description and does not allow either action or the internal monologues in each scene to dominate, always presenting the tableaux for reader supposition. Fast and entertaining, PRIOR BAD ACTS will not likely present much of a challenge in the whodunit stakes, but as there is a secondary crime in addition to the murders Hoag has kept all detail relevant and wasted little with both cases being, as they always are in mystery reads, intertwined.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Prior Bad Acts
A bit gruesome at the start and it didn't get much better as it went along.
However, I looked at the end to find out who did the murder and once I knew that I settled... Read more
However, I looked at the end to find out who did the murder and once I knew that I settled... Read more
Published on 8 April 2010 by Minnie Creswell
Prior Bad Acts
This is my first time reading Tami Hoag....I enjoyed the book but it was put downable....
I think it was very evident from the start where the story was going and it tended to... Read more
I think it was very evident from the start where the story was going and it tended to... Read more
Published on 7 April 2010 by Kk Carruthers
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