KILLER AMBITION by MARCIA CLARK

I'm enjoying Marcia Clark's series featuring prosecutor Rachel Knight and I think this is the best of the three I've read.  In this one Knight is prosecuting a case involving Hollywood's glitterati and the odds are definitely against her.  You can read between the lines where she has gleaned as much as possible from her own experience in the O. J. Simpson trial where it is appropriate to her fictional plot.  That makes the story even more interesting in my opinion.  She has also given Knight a young handsome attorney for second chair in the trial who comes from the very Hollywood background she is investigating.  He's a welcome addition to the team.

The plot involves the daughter of a super famous director.  She is missing and it turns out her boyfriend is gone as well.  Her father has received a ransom demand and took the money to the place the kidnapper specified but he still doesn't have his daughter back.  Then, too late, he calls the authorities.  With all the people who hang around his mansion, assistants, his wife, etc. and an ex-wife in the picture, there is no shortage of suspects.  They all have motives since the director has trampled many feet getting to where he is.  One of his most trusted friends and advisors is Ian Powers, a former child actor famous for a television series everyone including Knight had watched.  

I don't want to give away too much here but the case is a difficult one with lots of red herrings to trip up the reader.  Rachel Knight does a lot less obsessing about what to wear, what to eat, and her on-again, off-again relationship with Graden in this book and I thought that improved the story.  

As the case proceeds Knight can't help recalling her sister who was kidnapped and has never been found so she gets perhaps too caught up in the mystery of what has become of this young woman.  However, that gives her the courage to press on when everyone, including the district attorney, are seemingly against her.  Of course, faithful investigator Bailey and fellow ADA Toni are by her side to the end. 

Recommended
Source:  Netgalley