A Murder of Justice [Hardcover]

Robert Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 2004

When Skeeter Hodges is gunned down in a quiet black Washington, D.C., neighborhood, few mourn the loss. A vicious drug runner rumored to have killed twenty or thirty of his competitors, he was never brought to trial- witnesses simply vanished or conveniently forgot what they'd seen. To Frank Kearney and José Phelps, Skeeter finally got what he'd been handing out all along. Still, it was murder and they were cops. That means a serious search for his killer . . .

Until their boss intervenes and lays out the priorities: Go back to some of those scared witnesses and push. See how many of the District's unsolved cases can be laid at Skeeter's door. Make the department's numbers look good-no small task in a city where a third of all annual killings remain unsolved.

But making the numbers and making a collar are two very different things. And for Kearney and Phelps, the absence of arrests relates directly to the city's growing lawlessness. As the streets of D.C.-especially the black streets-remain killing fields, citizen distrust of color-selective law enforcement can spell only anarchy for an already troubled town.

A Murder of Justice is Robert Andrews's darkest and most intricate book, amply fulfilling Lee Child's early prediction that his would be a classic series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

D.C. homicide detectives Frank Kearney and José Phelps are back in Andrews's third entry in this sturdy series (A Murder of Honor; etc.) showcasing Washington's curious hybrid world of gritty street crime and political misdoings. One drug dealer has been killed and another wounded in a shooting that everyone agrees could only have gone better if both low-lifes had been wiped out. But it's still murder, and Kearney and Phelps are obliged to find out who shot up the duo. When the investigation leads the cops to the two-year-old killing of Kevin Gentry, a government official with links to the CIA, things begin to get complicated. What began as a turf battle between drug dealers evolves into a mystery that threatens to bring down high-level politicians and law enforcement bigwigs alike. Andrews brings the streets of upper-class Georgetown and ghetto Washington to life, tossing in plenty of city lore, and Kearney and Phelps are smart, dedicated and amusing, an unbeatable cop-novel combination. Their dogged investigation leads to a promotion for both that can only bode well for the continuation of this excellent series.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Skeeter Hodges is no loss to Washington's mean streets. He's an amoral drug dealer whose past is littered with dead rivals and intimidated witnesses. But when someone removed the top of his head in a barrage of gunfire, he became a murder victim. Frank Kearney and Jose Phelps, D.C. homicide detectives, catch the case, but there's a wrinkle: police brass want the detectives to link as many open homicides to Skeeter as possible so they can report a more flattering "resolved homicide" statistic. It's an unappealing option for the two veteran detectives who try to do their jobs by the book. Finding Skeeter's killer is no picnic, either, with a plethora of roadblocks, official and otherwise, standing in the way. Andrews works the same dark, dangerous milieu as George Pelecanos: a Washington teetering on the edge of breakdown in which good men have all they can do to maintain the veneer of civilization. A mature, thought-provoking morality play disguised as a cop novel. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: A Marian Wood Book/Putnam (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399150390
• ISBN-13: 978-0399150395
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,588,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better and better ...., January 28, 2005

By 

Stanley Ebner (Arlington, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Murder of Justice (Hardcover)

Some authors lose energy over time, while others repeat themselves in thinly disguised "new" stories. In his 3 "A Murder of" books Robert Andrews does neither. His heroes, and ours, Jose Phelps and Frank Kearney, have become real friends whose credibility grows with each novel. In "A Murder of Justice" they have become, if anything, still more believable while growing in complexity. This latest book is a terrific read, with a plot that grabs and holds, and with details that bring the story to life. Andrews is at the top of his game.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant police procedural, September 1, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Murder of Justice (Hardcover)

Nobody mourns the shooting death of drug supplier James "Skeeter" Hodges or the wounding of his friend Tobias "Pencil" Crawford in a black DC neighborhood. The drug dealers were sitting in a car when eight or nine bullets went through the window almost taking the Skeeter's head off and injuring Pencil. Nobody grieves Skeeter's death because he turned a nice Washington D.C. neighborhood into a war zone.

Police officers Frank Kearney and Jose Phelps are assigned the case but their superior captain Randolph Emerson is more interested in closing cold cases connected to Skeeter than catching the killer. The investigation heats up when it is discovered that the murder that killed Skeeter also killed Congressman Frederick Rhinelander's chief of staff Kevin Gantry. The department is publicly embarrassed because Kevin's case was signed off as an administrative closure. Now Frank and Jose have to find the killer or lose the confidence of the public.

Robert Andrews has written a brilliant police procedural with a dire social commentary. Once the public loses confidence in its police force, the country is one step away from anarchy. It is the belief in the police and the legal system that keeps this country functioning and the author makes that very clear. The two protagonists on the case are the heroes because they believe in the law and justice and doing their best to bring honor to the badges they carry.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent police procedural, November 20, 2006

By 

JoeV "Reader" (Arlington Hts, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Murder of Justice (Hardcover)

This is the third installment in the mystery/police series of Frank Kearney and Jose Phelps - two Washington, DC homicide detectives. Without belaboring or giving away the plot, this story centers around the murder of a DC drug kingpin which then opens up a whole can of worms concerning a two year old "solved" murder case of a congressional aide. What catapults this book above most police procedurals is the author's ability to manage/balance a multitude of threads and characters in this story - the murder case itself, DC politics/politicians and geography/neighborhoods, the FBI and all the witnesses, family members, etc that Frank and Jose - who are at the center of all this - meet along the way. Interestingly, (or maybe even ironically), this author's books remind me of several UK authors, (Robinson and Rankin come to mind), in that the author is able to shift gears from scenes, characters, and plot lines seamlessly while never losing/diluting the essence of the mystery. A great read.