Evidence of Guilt: A Kali O'Brien Mystery (Kali O'Brien Mysteries) - Hardcover

Jacobs, Jonnie

3.88

251 ratings by Goodreads

9781575661414: Evidence of Guilt: A Kali O'Brien Mystery (Kali O'Brien Mysteries)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1575661411 ISBN 13: 9781575661414

Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp, 1997

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When a local waitress and her young daughter are murdered, the chief suspect's attorney asks Kali, who is struggling to keep her practice afloat, to help in the defense, and she discovers the dark secrets that surrounded the victim.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Who would cut the throats of a defenseless woman and her four-year-old daughter? Not Wes Harding, insists his stepfather Jake, who gets his old fishing buddy Sam Morrison to take on his defense. Sam leans in turn on his friend Kali O'Brien (Shadow of Doubt, 1996) to be his co-counsel, and it's off to the races, with everybody on board but Wes, who's too truculent to talk to Kali or squelch the ambitious prosecutor's dreams of a quickie conviction based on the overwhelming physical evidence (Wes's bloodstained trousers, a telltale blond hair that could be from Lisa Cornell, Wes's lucky rabbit's foot in little Amy's pocket- -and it'll get worse). But Kali, digging into Lisa's past, finds a lot of secrets that could point elsewhere: her sub rosa consultations with a psychiatrist specializing in child abuse, her missing dream diary, hints of an affair that her sturdy fianc‚ wouldn't have approved of, a mysterious phone call the evening of the murder. If only Wes Harding would open up far enough to assist in his own defense, frets Kali--not knowing that her real quarry has already killed again, and isn't done yet. Three scoops of civilized interrogations (nobody wants to talk to the lawyer defending the man who'd do such a thing) don't offer much preparation for the sink of iniquity Kali finds under the smiling surface of California family values. -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Kali O'Brien, an attorney who left a big San Francisco law firm to open a solo practice in her small California home town, agrees to defend an accused killer whom she distrusts in this predictable story from the author of Murder Among Neighbors. Wes Harding, a handsome local man whom few townspeople like, has been accused of murdering waitress Lisa Cornell and her young daughter. Taking the case to please her mentor, who is a friend of the accused's father, Kali must contend with a hostile client, evidence that places him at the scene of the crime and the widely held belief that Harding is guilty. After extensive interviews with everyone from Lisa's wealthy fiance to her psychotherapist, Kali determines that the victim was not exactly what she seemed and determines that the killings may have been connected to an incident from her past. Kali is likable enough, but she remains two-dimensional and stereotyped. The plot moves quickly but pitches too many curves at the reader and comes to a disappointing halt with the revelation of the murderer and a cliched motive.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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