Tami Hoag Prior Bad Acts

Prior Bad Acts

Tami Hoag

Bantam, March 2006, $26.00, 384 pp.

ISBN 0553801988

It was such gruesome murders that hardened police officers, who had nervous breakdowns, heart attacks and felt shattered. Two children were tortured, butchered and hung by their necks from the ceiling. Their foster mother, who hoped to adopt them was eviscerated from her throat to her groin. Karl Dahl was arrested for the murders because his fingerprints were on the scene, a neighbors son saw him looking in the window, and the victim's necklace was on his person when he was arrested.

At a hearing, Judge Casey Moore refused to let Dahl's prior crimes be introduced at the trial, a call that made her many enemies. When she goes to the garage to get the car she is assaulted and left unconscious. Detective Sam Kovac starts off disliking the judge and ends up caring for her. He vows to protect her from people who might want to harm her, including the former lead detective who demands justice. Her enemies also include Dahl who is obsessed with her and broke out of prison, and her husband who has a secret life and might think she is in the way. Four more deaths occur before Casey is kidnapped, and it is up to Kovac to save her, if he can get to where she is being held captive in time.

Fans of Kay Hooper, Iris Johansen, and Linda Howard will find Prior Bad Acts a chilling thriller with a surplus of suspects. Although Dahl is a killer, there is another murderer on the loose, and his identity will come as a surprise to the audience. Characters from ASHES TO ASHES AND DUST TO DUST make a repeat performance giving the police procedural a sense of continuity. Tami Hoag is one of the best crime writers in the new millennium because she makes her audience believe that the storyline is possible.