Sunday, March 26, 2023

Her Deadly Game

Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni
3/28/23; 396 pages
Thomas & Mercer

Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni is a very highly recommended procedural and investigative legal thriller.

After ending an affair with a colleague in the prosecutor's office, Keera Duggan has joined her family's criminal defense law firm, Patrick Duggan and Associates. With her father's decline into alcoholism, joining the firm is a way to restore the family reputation. When Vince LaRussa needs a defense lawyer, Keera is the one on call and she rushes to meet with him. LaRussa has been accused of murdering his wife. There is little real evidence against him, but when Keera learns her former lover Miller Ambrose will be the prosecutor, she knows the challenges her family will face in the court battle facing them.

Keera's experience as a chess player will hopefully help her concentrate on the discoveries and the right moves she needs to make in her first homicide defense case. The evidence and the complications become much more complicated as a stranger, who seems to have additional information about the case, emails her and sends her down a trail looking into the clues and uncovering information hidden from her.

This is a well-written, excellent procedural and investigative legal thriller that will hold your attention throughout and keep you glued to the pages while anticipating the next clue or new evidence that is revealed. The case is fascinating and complicated. The fast paced plot and investigative phase followed by the courtroom drama is compelling and holds several shocking surprises. No spoilers here because being introduced to the case and then following the new information uncovered is part of what makes the novel so irresistible.

Keera is a strong, intelligent, well-developed character. Readers will be rooting for her as she tackles the case and puts everything she has behind investigating what really happened and preparing for the case. She has to face some hard facts about her family and herself that will only benefit her. Hopefully this is a new series because Keera is a wonderful character. It would be awesome to see her come up against Ambrose again and give him what he deserves.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley.

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