Suspicion of Malice - Hardcover

Parker, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525945423 ISBN 13: 9780525945420

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 2000

Synopsis

Gail Connor reluctantly teams up with Anthony Quintana again when they represent a Miami Ballet dancer who has been accused of murder and the judge with whom the dancer was smoking marijuana at the time of the killing. 60,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Bobby Gonzales, a promising young dancer with the Miami ballet, is the only suspect in the murder of Roger Cresswell, whose family has been building yachts for wealthy Floridians for two decades. Bobby is also the secret boyfriend of Angela Quintana, whose father Anthony, a successful criminal attorney, is having trouble letting go of the two main women in his life: his daughter and his former fiancée, Gail Connor. Angela asks Gail to help her clear Bobby; Gail is torn, knowing her participation will bring her face to face with the man she still loves.

Roger is the second Cresswell to die violently; his sister, a talented artist who was the wife of Anthony Quintana's client, took her life at the height of her fame. Those facts seem like more than coincidence to Gail, whose efforts to unravel the family secrets that seem to be at the core of the Cresswell deaths are complicated by her fondness for Angela, her belief in Bobby's innocence, and a surprising secret of her own.

Suspicion of Malice is as much a love story as a murder mystery, but Parker invests her plot with enough stylish touches to keep the momentum going. She excels at characterization--Gail's emotional depths and conflicted feelings are well explicated, Anthony's old-world machismo and modern vulnerabilities sympathetically portrayed, and the secondary players, especially Gail's mother and Anthony's grandfather, clearly and convincingly drawn. As in previous outings (Suspicion of Deceit, Suspicion of Betrayal), Parker has used the sexual tension between Gail and Anthony as they collaborate in crime-solving to good effect; how the events in their relationship that drive this thriller to its violent conclusion will affect their professional as well as personal affairs awaits a future installment. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Barbara Parker, a former state prosecutor for Dade County, Florida, and Edgar Award nominee, is the author of six previous novels: Suspicion of Innocence, Suspicion of Guilt, Blood Relations, Criminal Justice, Suspicion of Deceit, and Suspicion of Betrayal.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0525945423
• ISBN 13: 9780525945420
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352