Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My first visit but not my last, 14 Aug 2007
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.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This is Dead Sky under a different name, 28 May 2007
I bought this book not releasing it is Dead Sky (which i already had) under a different name.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Murder and Mayhem Bookclub review, 16 May 2007
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.
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