cover image Murder One

Murder One

Robert Dugoni. S&S/Touchstone, $24.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4516-0669-0

At the start of Dugoni's fourth legal thriller, the best yet in the series (after Bodily Harm), featuring Seattle attorney David Sloane, he attends his first public event since his wife's murder a year earlier, a benefit to promote legal aid services, where he literally runs into attorney Barclay Reid, an adversary from a previous case. Reid is also in mourning%E2%80%94for her college age daughter, Carly, who died of a heroin overdose. Reid mounts a charm offensive to persuade Sloane to represent her in a wrongful death suit against the Russian gangster, Filyp Vasiliev, who was behind the heroin sale that killed Carly and who has just beaten federal criminal charges after a judge tossed out crucial evidence at a pretrial hearing. The shooting death of Vasiliev in his Seattle home derails the developing romance between Sloane and Reid as well as the civil case. While many will anticipate the ending twist, Dugoni conveys the legalese in digestible form. (June)