Natasha Cooper, Evil Is Done

Evil Is Done

Natasha Cooper

St. Martin's, March 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 0312362129

After eighteen years as a barrister, Trish Maguire feels life has gone full circle. She works with Leviathan loss adjuster eight plus months pregnant Cecilia Mayford, who happens to be married to a highly regarded sculptor Sam Foundling, one of Trish's first clients. Trish and Cecelia are looking into the newly developed London Arms building in which cracks have formed.

Sam, raised as a foster child, receives a letter from a woman in HM Prison claiming to be his biological mother, who needs his help as she stands charged with infanticide. However, someone batters his wife at his studio. She is rushed to the hospital with head traumas, but though the baby is saved Cecilia dies. Trish believes Sam is innocent, but others like his mother-in-law Gina "Mrs. Justice" Mayford and Trish's friend, newly assigned police Chief Inspector Homicide Detective Caroline Lyalt think otherwise, and plan to prove their assertion. Trish looks at a host of other scenarios, but doubts Caro will listen to her unless she uncovers something solid.

EVIL IS DONE is an exciting London whodunit, in which the police and the in-laws believe the husband committed the homicide, while his only friend Trish thinks otherwise. The cast is strong, especially the support players who bring out the best in the heroic barrister. Already with some conflict with her boyfriend over the cracked building case, Trish's efforts to find evidence of someone else being the perpetrator, while the police only follow clues to hang Sam, make for a wonder mystery that readers will appreciate.