A Suggestion of Death -0671035592

In her national bestseller Render Up the Body, former federal prosecutor Marianne Wesson delivered an "intense legal drama" (Sara Paretsky). Now, Wesson's unforgettable heroine, Colorado attorney Cinda Hayes, is the heart and soul of a thrilling and authentic new novel -- a page-turner that ranks with the best suspense fiction of Scott Turow and Linda Fairstein.

The cry for help first comes over the telephone: a scared young woman with a small voice calls a radio talk show hosted by Cinda Hayes, with searching legal questions about "intimate torts." When Cinda meets Mariah McKay in person, she encounters a troubled, delicate twenty-year-old with a shocking accusation: her father, a respected university professor and candidate for Colorado state senate, traumatized her as a child. Mariah retains only jagged pieces of her horrific memories, but with the clock ticking on the statute of limitations, Cinda cannot afford to wait. She must pursue the case with the evidence at hand.

Mariah has fled her privileged upbringing and retreated into the plains east of Boulder, where she has taken refuge among a band of people with their own political agenda -- a militia group. Her chief protector is Pike Sayers, a magnetic, mysterious man who is the community's judge of the "common law." As Cinda investigates Mariah's painful and secretive history, Sayers might be Cinda's greatest ally -- or her worst opposition. And as she deciphers the fragments of evidence, she plunges herself into danger. Someone wants to keep the past wrapped tightly in darkness, and will stop at nothing to ensure that Cinda comes up empty-handed. Under terrible pressure and mounting threats, Cinda will fight relentlessly for a desperate young woman's chance at redemption.

Cinda Hayes touches the heart and the mind in A Suggestion of Death, a taut, provocative thriller that resonates well beyond its gripping legal suspense.