Intent to Harm

Imagine losing what you love most. Dont say I didnt warn you . . . The woman gives her name as Betty. No last name. No phone number. Just a meeting place a deserted, wooded park on the outskirts of Lake Tahoe. The retainer is a healthy one. The one condition come alone. San Francisco attorney Kali OBrien understands client confidentiality, but something about Bettys urgent request has her a little spooked. Whatever secrets the woman is hiding must be very incriminating and very dangerous to demand such privacy. But Kali never gets that information. The moment Betty meets with Kali, shes shot and killed by a sniper, and Kali barely escapes with her life. Shes left with more questions than answers. Why did the woman go to such lengths to ensure secrecy? What is important enough to protect at such cost? And then theres the last thing Betty every said a cryptic phrase that leads Kali to another unsolved case the mysterious disappearance of a woman eight years earlier. [...] As Kali get closer to discovering the truth, a killer is right behind her, anticipating her every move, waiting for her to play into his very lethal hands . . . From Publishers Weekly Jacobs's sixth Kali O'Brien thriller (after Cold Justice) starts with a bang-San Francisco attorney O'Brien is shot and nearly killed in a remote park near Lake Tahoe-but rapidly loses momentum as a mountain of red herrings pile up. O'Brien meets a mysterious new client at the park, but before she can learn anything about her case, the two women are attacked and the client is killed. When O'Brien is released from the hospital with a painful shoulder wound, she sets out to investigate, despite a daunting lack of clues. Her client, Betty Arnold, was a middle-aged woman who lived a quiet life. The only interesting bit of information O'Brien can glean about her is that her niece, a young schoolteacher named Faith Foster, was kidnapped eight years before and is still missing. A newspaper clipping discovered in Arnold's knitting bag leads O'Brien to Faith, but O'Brien is being tailed by a ruthless hit man who will do anything to wipe out Faith and finish the job he botched eight years ago. The identity of the hit man is made clear from the beginning-chapters narrated from his perspective provide some comic relief-but O'Brien is unable to pinpoint his employer until the very end. In an attempt to produce a sense of urgency, Jacobs introduces some wild cards-a high-profile doctor, a young Hispanic scapegoat, a Chinese police detective-but as each subplot fizzles, the pace slows to a crawl. The hasty, underdeveloped conclusion will leave readers scratching their heads and may make them wary of following along on O'Brien's next adventure. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist San Francisco attorney Kali O'Brien, recently off a temporary stint with the D.A.'s office ( Cold Justice , 2002), is summoned to Lake Tahoe by a potential client, who sets up a mysterious meeting in a public park. Kali is speaking with "Betty" for only a moment when shots ring out, wounding Kali and killing her would-be client. Having learned nothing about why Betty wanted to hire her, Kali makes it her business to find out what led to Betty's murder. At first the pieces do not seem to fit together, but then Kali realizes that two other murders occurred the same day Betty's niece disappeared. Kali finds the niece, who insists a certain crooked doctor is to blame. Kali proceeds on this assumption, but the reader knows that the real killer is following her every step, though the mastermind behind it all isn't revealed until the satisfyingly surprising conclusion. Kali is a thoroughly likable heroine whose yearly appearances are most welcome. Mary Frances Wilkens Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved