R. Barri Flowers, State’s Evidence

State's Evidence

R. Barri Flowers

Leisure, April 2006, $6.99, 386 pp.

ISBN: 0843955716

After winning a capital murder case in Judge Crawford's courtroom, Assistant District Attorney in Wilameta County in Northern California Beverly Mendoza and her co-chair and lover Deputy D.A. Grant Nunez celebrate. So does the judge and his young wife, but their party dissolves into a massacre when a Latina male kills the judge and brutally rapes his wife. Through good eye witnesses testimony, the wife is able to point out the killer, rapist Rafael Santiago, in two line ups. The judge had sentenced him to hard time; twelve years behind bars. he vowed revenge when he was sentenced.

Beverly is the prosecuting attorney, and Grant, who has been appointed as a judge, is on the bench for what seems like a slam dunk case. While at a Burger King with her son, Beverly spots a man who looks almost identical to Rafael. The police are looking for Manuel Gonzalez in the death of at least three women, and he has singled out Beverly as his next target. He is arrested before he can harm her, but he throws a monkey wrench into Rafael's case and causes Beverly to doubt her own beliefs.

R. Barri Flowers has written an electrifying and enthralling legal thriller that will appeal to readers of Nancy Taylor Rosenberg and Barbara Parker. The courtroom scenes are very realistic, and the heroine is someone readers will empathize with and admire as a role model for minorities and women. STATE'S EVIDENCE would make a great action-packed movie.