Amazon.com: L.A. Justice: Dick Lochte, Christopher Darden: Books

Amazon.com
Chris Darden, better known for his courtroom performance in the O.J. Simpson trial than as a writer, makes his fiction debut with a suspense thriller whose two protagonists, L.A. prosecuting attorney Nikki Hill and her lover, police detective Virgil Sykes, seem like an idealized version of Darden and Marcia Clark. The good news is that Nikki and Virgil make a more interesting (and sexier) dream team in fiction than Darden and Clark did in real life. When Nikki is assigned to a high-profile case prosecuting Randy Bingham, the spaced-out son of a wealthy financier, for the murder of his girlfriend, Shelli Dietz, she and Virgil develop a special relationship with Shelli's orphaned son, a brilliant and precocious 10-year-old computer genius who's the chief witness against Bingham.

At the same time, an exceedingly ambitious woman who has her sights set on replacing Nikki's boss as district attorney is playing political games with a case involving Virgil's friend and partner, Dan McNeil, whose role in a shooting incident has already attracted the attention of Internal Affairs. When a prostitute who was a special friend of McNeil's is murdered, her pimp blames the death on him. When the pimp and his business partner are slain while McNeil is in jail, suspicion falls on Virgil. There are enough dirty cops and sleazy crooks to keep the action moving, plus a psychopath or two. The book benefits from the contributions of collaborator Lochte, a skilled plotter, but there are a lot of dead spots and awkward phrases, superficial characteristics, and contrived situations, which aren't typical of Lochte's own fiction. Draw your own conclusions about the guilty party. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
While he may have struggled very publicly in court, DardenDassistant prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson case turned crime authorDhas now delivered two high-octane legal thrillers in The Trials of Nikki Hill and this lively new sequel. L.A. prosecutor Nikki is working on the shooting death of artist Shelli Dietz. Shelli is, or was, the lover of wealthy wastrel Randy Bingham and the mother of Adam Noyes, a precocious 10-year-old computer whiz. Randy was passed out at the time of the murder, while young Adam was hiding upstairs. On the case for the LAPD is Virgil Sykes, Nikki's lover and reluctant partner to Dan McNeil, a career burnout and woman hater. Darden and his coauthor, veteran crime author Lochte, crosscut this slick if jumpy narrative with the taped ramblings of Patience, a dead hooker, who worked for upscale pimps Pickett and Ricky at the same time she was involved with a cop. This side plot proves distracting; moreover, characters tend to get stranded for long stretches. After Virgil is shot, he wanders into a medicated limbo, and McNeil, who grows more soiled by the page, also takes a powder. Accepting the solution to Shelli's death, as well as the identity of the Patience's murderer, requires some generosity on the part of the reader, but this novel is just the kind of frenzied page-turner many authors aspire to and few deliver. Darden's legal smarts and Lochte's sure prose touch work well in tandem. Agent, Mel Berger. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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L.A. Justice (Hardcover)

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