When Marie Corrigan, a Cleveland defense attorney with a history of falsifying evidence and no shortage of enemies, is found dead in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton, most people would agree that she had it coming. Forensic investigator Theresa MacLean is summoned to the crime scene by her daughter, Rachel, who is working the front desk. But even before Theresa enters the room, she knows that she's walking into a forensic nightmare, for crime scenes at hotels, even the most luxurious, are teeming with trace evidence that has been left behind by innumerable guests and may or may not be related to the murder. But what Theresa finds is even worse than she imagined.
Given the positioning of Marie's body, everyone assumes the same thing, that it's a lovers' tryst turned lethal. But large questions remain: How did the killer gain access to the room without anyone's knowledge? And has the scene been staged for their benefit? The little evidence Theresa has is conflicting at best. What's more, a legal convention at the hotel provides an endless list of suspects, and potential victims.
When two more bodies show up in quick succession, each in a similar state, Theresa's investigation takes on a whole new urgency as she fears they may have a serial killer on their hands, a serial killer with a vendetta. But as she searches for the threads that tie the cases together, Theresa begins to suspect that she and her daughter are closer to danger than they realize. And a mother will stop at nothing to protect the life of her child.
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"Shakespeare's "let's kill all the lawyers" gets a workout in this 4th entry in Black's Theresa MacLean forensic investigator series. Mama MacLean gets a chill when receiving her daughter's text of "sum 1 ded here" from the hotel at which she's working before going back to college. The "ded" happens to be a not-so-much lamented femme fatale of a defense attorney who was attending a convention for criminal defense attorneys at the Cleveland Ritz-Carlton. Detectives and forensic investigators both have run afoul of Marie Corrigan's tricky tactics on behalf of her clients...and there are a passel of victim's families out there who would have liked to see her roasted on a spit, but none of them had a key card for this security conscious locked hotel room. When a former lover and professional colleague also in attendance meets the same bloody and humiliatingly staged end as Marie, the plot has thickened and the pool of suspects has deepened to include a retired cop now employed by the hotel, the new boyfriend - did we mention the dead lawyer got him cleared of a rape/murder charge? - of Theresa's daughter, Rachael, and well just about everyone who ever met both the dead lawyers.
This series continues to shine with working class Cleveland lending its blue collar aura. And Theresa is the everywoman - except for that whole crawling around on the floor picking hairs off dead people thing - that inspires admiration from any reader and fan of forensic fare.
P.S. After reading Takeover, Evidence of Murder, and Trail of Blood, go back and find her 2 books under the name Elizabeth Becka that also feature a female forensic investigator."
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Lee (4 out of 5 stars)