John Ramsey Miller Upside Down

Upside Down

John Ramsey Miller

Dell, July 2005, $6.99, 416 pp.

ISBN 0553583409

In New Orleans, attorney Kimberly Porter specializes in death row cases because she doesn't believe in capital punishment. She is at her office with her daughter Faith Ann waiting for Amber Lee to arrive with evidence that will exonerate Horace Ford who will soon be executed. Amber shows up with photographs and negatives and they tape her story that crime lord and businessman Jerry Bennett faked evidence that would implicate Horace.

Hit man Aturo Estrada, hired by Bennett, kills Kimberly and Amber, and takes the photographs. He doesn't know that Kimberly made duplicates that twelve years old Faith Ann has along with the tape and negative she hopes to give to her uncle Mark, a former U.S. Marshal because she knows Bennett has the police in his pocket. Mark and his wife are run over, putting Millie in the morgue and him in the hospital. Captain Suggs, indebted to Bennett, makes it look like Faith Ann killed the two women. Faith dodges the hit man and corrupt police while trying to get the evidence into the proper authorities before anyone else is hurt. U.S. marshal Winter Massey Arrives in New Orleans to find Faith Ann and bring Millie's killer to justice.

Winter Massey returns for another hair-raising adventure in UPSIDE DOWN but the real heroine of this book is Faith Ann, a child who plays cat and mouse with police officers and killers while running for her life. She is still concerned about Horace and finding a way to get the evidence into the right hands. If people were like her the world would be a much better place. John Ramsey Miller does a brilliant job of showing that youngsters given a chance can be responsible caring people. Readers who like action in their thrillers will love this book.

Harriet Klausner