Judgment Calls (Samantha Kincaid, #1) (New Blood) (Samantha Kincaid Mysteries, NO. 1 OF 3)

by Alafair Burke

Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid walks into her office in Portland's Drug and Vice Division one Monday morning to find three police officers waiting for her. A thirteen-year-old girl has been brutally attacked and left for dead on the city's outskirts. Given the lack of evidence, most lawyers would settle for an assault charge; Samantha, unnerved by the viciousness of the crime, decides to go for attempted murder. As Sam prepares for the trial, she uncovers a dangerous trail leading to an earlier high-profile death penalty case, a prostitution ring of underage girls, and a possible serial killer. And she finds her judgement - not only in matters of the law but in her personal life - called into question...

• ISBN10: 0752859358
• ISBN13: 9780752859354
• Publish Date: 1 July 2004 (first published 1 July 2003)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 April 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
• Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

The crime part of this story was great. The action was fast paced and suspenseful. I didn't see the twist at the end of the who and the why. On the other hand it was let down by the inclusion of the romance.

Because the romance was freaking ridiculous.

I like a strong feisty heroine. But that wasn't Samantha. Samantha was kind of stupid for a lawyer. For all her ambition she has no concept of politics. Particularly office politics. She was standoffish and judgemental to her coworkers. And some of it was justified (because the men were jerks) but I got the impression that she was always like that no matter what they said. Plus she never really tells them off, just gets shirty and is all, that's not funny. She's focused and narrow minded and honestly not all that likeable.

In terms of the romance she's a freaking psycho. Samantha and the love interest, Chuck (one of the police detectives) are high school sweethearts. They did the whole long distance thing for college but Samantha resents him for being the reason she didn't get to experience things others did. Not sure why she couldn't go out without him but whatever. She apparently decided law school would be different and made him apply to graduate schools with her. Except he decides he doesn't want to go to graduate school so she makes him choose. He tries to tell her he doesn't want to go to more school, he wants to be a cop. She laughs and tells him he'll never amount to anything and he walks out. So okay, not that bad.

But they reconnect on and off and this is a guy she's known her whole life and the second there's a rumour of wrongdoing on his part she throws him under the bus. What the hell? There's no loyalty in her. I didn't remotely understand why he wanted to be with her. Ever. Especially because he's apparently good looking, smart, well off, kind and reasonable. He could do better.

So considering Samantha was fairly unlikable 90% of the time, I'm kind of surprised I liked this as much as I did. But the other characters, the motives and the crimes themselves made up for it. I found myself flying through pages trying to figure out how it would end, how they would get justice. So, I'll likely pick up the next one. But for this one 4 stars.