Natural Law

Set against a backdrop of academia, law and Hoosier basketball mania, this sensitive novel may be more Oprah's Book Club material than mystery, were it not for the gruesome body count. An arrogant law professor, with no shortage of enemies and a seedy private life, turns up garroted and mutilated in a field. Meanwhile, Nora Lumsey, a deputy public defender in Indianapolis, is representing a young prostitute, Stormi Skye, on a drug charge. Both Nora and her client are connected to the dead professor, professionally and intimately. When Stormi's twin sister, Sunni (also a prostitute), is murdered in the same way, Harrison County police suspect a serial killer, while detective Luther Cox finds clues that threaten to resurrect a dark moment from his past. Should Luther implicate himself in a police cover-up from a rape case involving a young basketball star? Or should he let the murderer go free? In this follow-up to the Edgar-nominated Criminal Appeal, Schanker deftly examines her characters' moral failures, making the reader sympathetic yet all the more eager to see them do the right thing. Prostitutes, policemen and lawyers are victims and victimizers alike, making bad choices and then being forced to pay for them until they can find redemption within themselves. The plot is engaging until the end, when the author pushes things over the edge for the sake of a flashy finish. Readers of Jane Hamilton may notice similarities in tone and in the depiction of smalltown desperation. Agent, Laura Blake Peterson.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

While defending a drug-addicted prostitute accused of murder, attorney Nora Lumsey uncovers police wrongdoing, rape by an Indiana University basketball player, and much more. A solid second to the author's first novel, A Criminal Appeal (LJ 9/1/98), nominated for an Edgar.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A corpse is found in an Indiana cornfield. The discovery of the body, that of a distinguished but controversial and greatly despised law professor, draws in a hard-luck hooker, a conflicted and self-hating public defender, and a depressive, artistic cop. This is the second appearance for the public defender, Nora Lumsey, who starred in Schanker's preceding procedural, the Edgar-nominated A Criminal Appeal (1998). In this character-complex sequel, Lumsey, a woman who, feeling herself an outcast, is drawn to her scum-of-the-earth clients, shares the spotlight with the cop on the case, Luther Cox. Shanker effectively shuttles back and forth between their perspectives, giving the reader a view from both sides of a case that moves from raggedy trailer parks to well-appointed law-school offices to the splendidly appointed domain of the real power at the university, the rapacious basketball coach. Nice pacing, in-depth insights into the lurchings of the law, and a stunning climax. Connie Fletcher
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