Blind Spot

Criminal defense lawyer Jackie Flowers, the protagonist of Kane's debut legal thriller, has the makings of becoming the law profession's answer to Kinsey Millhone, the feisty private eye in Sue Grafton's alphabet-series mystery novels. With an impressive command of legal procedures and serial-killer psychology, Kane, a former attorney, can certainly weave a captivating yarn. Unfortunately, her incessant asides--questioning characters' motives and summing up plot advances--may irritate readers. Flowers is called upon to defend local businessman Aaron Best in the grisly slaying of Rae Malone, a millionaire's trophy wife whose head and body were found in separate locations near Coors Field in Colorado. As part of her research, Flowers immerses herself in the past lives of four other area women who met similar deaths, going so far as to visit the sites where their naked, deformed and headless bodies were dumped. Along the way, Flowers befriends and convinces Dr. Richard Hanna Jr., a renowned forensic psychologist, to help her prove Best's innocence (and end her drought of lonely Friday nights). But Hanna, Best and a cast of shady characters each have at least one secret that could cost Flowers her case--or her life. Kane's most intriguing character, should she choose to develop a series around Flowers, might just be a young Asian girl whom Flowers befriends and whose role in the book develops significantly as the plot progresses. (Oct.)