Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag (2006), 328 pgs.

Character Introduction

Judge Cary Moore: She is a former prosecutor who leaves her prosecutor mindset behind to become the fairest judge that she can be. In the name of fairness, she is not popular with the law enforcement community or the public as a whole, especially in this case.

David Moore: He is Cary’s husband who is jealous of her success while he has none, as a documentary filmmaker. Their marriage is on the verge of dissolution. He lives a whole other life that Cary knows nothing about.

Karl Dahl: He is a homeless vagabond and the most hated man in the community. He is accused of slaughtering a mother and two children in a very gruesome way. He is the pivot point that sets this story into motion for two reasons.

Sam Kovac: A hard-nosed cop conflicted about helping the unpopular Judge Moore and adhering to his duty as a cop. However, he is good at what he does and will not shirk his responsibilities on the basis of how he feels or disagrees with.

Nikki Liska: She is Sam Kovac’s wisecracking partner and voice of reason.

Bobby Haas: The son and brother of the mother and children that were murdered. Bobby is a foster child and has a history of being passed from family to family. Tragedy seems to strike in whatever family he happens to be in, but seems to be handling it well.

Wayne Haas: The husband and father of the mother and children that were murdered.

Stan Dempsey: A rogue cop that decides to take matters into his own hands. He is the opposite of Sam Kovac. He allows his feelings about the situation, which he feels Judge Moore created, to take him over the edge.

Description

There are three crimes that Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska have on their hands to solve. The first crime is the gruesome murder of a woman and her two children. The second crime is the beating and kidnapping of Judge Moore.

The first crime, the murder, seems like an open and shut case. Circumstantial evidence strongly points to Karl Dahl and Karl is taken into custody. Everybody is sure he is the one. Judge Moore, being a fair judge, thinks that everybody deserves a fair trial, no matter how much evidence is stacked up against him or her. In the case of Karl Dahl, she rules that Karl’s prior criminal record will be inadmissible in his trial causing outrage in the law enforcement community and throughout Hennepin County. However, there will be no trial, just yet, because a series of events gives Karl Dahl and opportunity to escape from police custody. Sam and Nikki now have a manhunt on their hands.

The second crime is thought to have occurred because of Judge Moore’s ruling and the outrage that resulted from it. She has now put herself in danger. She is beaten and almost murdered in a parking garage but manages to scare the attacker away before he or she can finish the job. Sam and Nikki must now protect Judge Moore from any other attempts on her life and find her assailant, despite how they feel about her personally.

The third crime is the kidnapping of Judge Moore, under the nose of police protection. Sam and Nikki go into action again, to prevent the kidnapping from turning into murder.

From a plethora of suspects, Sam and Nikki must figure out who did each of the crimes. Did Karl murder the woman and her children? Is the same person or different people involved in each of the crimes? Is it someone from the sphere of suspects, or someone they don’t even know about?

Analysis

The book had a many things going on keeping the reader interested until the last page. Not only was it about crime, but it was also about the qualities of a human being that can be flawed at times. One example is Sam Kovac’s decision to do his best to help Judge Moore despite how he felt about the situation and about her, personally. Another example is Stan Dempsey, who let his feelings overcome his sense of duty, putting his career and life in jeopardy.

For some readers, by the middle of the book, the mystery can be slightly predictable. Because there were so many suspects, this may lead the reader to follow a formula of picking the least likely of the suspects to be the individual or individuals who did the crimes.