In this one, two women are murdered at a party; one of them is a famous model. Shortly afterwards, other people related to the cover girl start to get killed. Lucas Davenport has to get to the bottom of things while working in the full glare of public interest.

This wasn't one of the best ones: the story seemed to meander a bit and didn't have a very clear direction. While there were some tense moments, on the whole the pace was steady rather than accelerating. And the final revelation of who was responsible was almost incidental - this was not a whodunnit that had you puzzling over clues and trying to discover the murderers' identities. But it was nevertheless impressive, perhaps because Sandford resisted the temptation to make it a conventional crime story with a series of clues leading to the culprit.

In fact it felt like this was maybe how an investigation would unravel, with bits of good luck, bits of bad luck, and general persistence being what leads to the solving of the crime.

Richard Ferrone did another excellent job reading the book. In one section in particular he made it sound almost like a dramatisation: some cops were on surveillance duty, reporting to Lucas on the phone when the guy they were watching suddenly got shot. Their reactions, and the general confusion, were brilliantly done. That had me on the edge of my seat.

Also a good line where they found a body in the trunk of a car. Davenport suggests it looks like the guy was beaten to death with a chair. The cop with him brightens: "I've never seen a chair job before".

Completed : 02-Mar-2006 (audiobook, read by Richard Ferrone)