Sworn to Defend by
Carolyn Wheat
pbk out March 99
(No Exit Press)
at £5.99
It's not often that Brooklyn lawyer Cass Jameson finds herself with an innocent client. So when she wins Keith Jernigan's appeal, she's thrilled that he's no longer in jail for a crime he didn't commit. But when Keith's gratitude starts to feel claustrophobic, Cass discovers that the crimes he did commit were far worse than the one the police framed him for.
So when she realises she has a stalker hell-bent on wrecking her life and her legal practice, the obvious suspect is the client who stalked his ex-girlfriends and destroyed the life of one of them in an acid attack. But Keith isn't the only person out to get Cass. She's made the mistake of coming between two obsessive people in the throes of the divorce from hell. And when the ex-wife is shot by a sniper in Cass's office, the stakes are raised unbearably. Sworn to Defend is a nail-biter of a book, as compulsive as the damaged personalities who fill its pages. High tension, sharp dialogue and a fine sense of the dramatic set-piece make this a welcome addition to No Exit Press's excellent collection of American writers who have unaccountably not been published in the UK before.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
Sworn to Defend by
Carolyn Wheat