Night Laws Jim Michael Hansen

Night Laws

Jim Michael Hansen

Dark Sky, Jan 2006, $13.95

ISBN: 0976924307

Denver Homicide Detective Bryson Coventry visits attorney Kelly Parks of Holland, Roberts and Northway LLC to question her as a killer used his latest victim's cell phone to call her at her private office line, but being a Sunday she was not in and he left no message. Bryson shows her the pictures of young teacher D'endra Vaughn taken at the crime scene to shake her up before interrogating Kelly. He believes she is more than just a link, but the next victim. Kelly tells him she does not know the deceased, but begins to connect the dots from his inquiry.

Kelly concludes that the homicide is related to the quasi at best legal situation she and other members of the firm performed that probably led to a murder herself. Either way she needs to know thee truth and stop an avenging angel before he kills her. Kelly investigates the one dark mark on her career at the same time that Bryson digs deeper and deeper while the killer waits for the moment to change her listing to dead.

NIGHT LAWS is a terrific investigative tale that moves forward one step and subsequently takes two steps backwards or sideways as the cop and the lawyer separately realize that their inquiries prove complicated, complex and convoluted. The case is conducted along two serpentine paths that of a police procedural and an amateur sleuth. However, the reason the story line is so good and worth reading is the prime cast members especially the two sleuths seem very real; she filled with regret and remorse and he with stopping the killer. Jim Michael Hanson provides a strong thriller that leads the audience into tracking the culprit alongside of the two courageous investigators.

Harriet Klausner