Above the Law - Hardcover

J. F. Freedman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525944796 ISBN 13: 9780525944799

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 2000

Synopsis

While investigating a high-profile case involving the death of a leader of a notorious drug-dealing gang, California D.A. Nora Ray begins to think that there are political forces trying to cover up the truth of what really took place

About this title

About the Author

J.F. Freedman is the best selling author of Against the Wind, The Obstacle Course, House of Smoke, Key Witness, The Disappearance, and Above the Law. He lives with his family on the central California coast.

Reviews

Former DA Luke Garrison is back in another tricky and exciting Freedman thriller (after The Disappearance). Now a defense attorney in Santa Barbara, he gets a surprise call from an old law school friend, Nora Ray. As the DA in remote Muir County in Northern California, Ray wants him to investigate the murder of drug overlord Reynaldo Juarez, which occurred during a violent and botched DEA raid on the Juarez compound in Ray's district. Garrison finds it hard to believe that anyone cares about who murdered the drug lord. But Ray thinks the DEA is conspiring to cover up something else, especially as they had orders to capture Juarez so he could be detained as a witness in other investigations. Reluctantly, Garrison agrees to be hired as her special prosecutor. The key players in the case are a twisted and intriguing lot: mysterious, needy, possibly dangerous Ray, attracted to the attractive prosecutor; elderly local sheriff Miller, exiled to Muir County long ago by the FBI and cut out of the DEA raid; Miller's deputy, Wayne Bearpaw, the liaison to local Native Americans who are trying desperately to haul themselves out of poverty; and federal agent Sterling Jerome, arrogant leader of the drug bust. As the case unfolds, Garrison uncovers the workings of Juarez's West Coast drug enterprise, the movement of large sums of money, startling passions and connections that go deep (including a long-ago link between Jerome and Juarez). Finally, as past and present converge, it becomes clear that nearly everyone has been hiding a secret. Though in need of some editorial tightening, Freedman's complexly plotted mystery builds to a surprising and satisfying climax. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Legal thrillers of near-epic proportions are the author's forte. Luke Garrison, criminal lawyer hero of The Disappearance, and Kate Blanchard, private-eye protagonist of House of Smoke, return as star and supporting player in this absorbing story of a police cover-up in the northern California wilderness. Garrison is lionized by the media after killing two men who had held him hostage in a roadside caf , and his newfound celebrity brings him a prestigious job offer--to serve as special investigator of the murder of one of the FBI's ten most wanted men. The leader of an international drug-dealing conglomerate has been shot, despite the U.S. attorney general's order to take him alive. Who is concealing the truth--law enforcement officials, gang members, or both? Garrison's former law school classmate, an attractive, troubled woman, happens to be the local district attorney. She gets too involved--both in the case under investigation and with Garrison himself. Freedman creates rich, complex tapestries but has a tendency to introduce minor characters who clutter the landscape until they disappear. Overall, Above the Law is an expertly plotted page-turner that holds the reader in its grip right up to the 11th-hour surprise ending.
-Joyce Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, NJ
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525944796
• ISBN 13: 9780525944799
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464