Cold Justice (Kali O'Brien series Book 5)

I'll have to go back and cover author Jonnie Jacob's earlier tales about attorney Kali O'Brien. I started with her latest, "Cold Justice", and thoroughly enjoyed it!Kali's best friend, Anne, was, with Kali, a member of the prosecution team that sent Dwayne Arnold Davis to his execution as "The Bayside Strangler". Now Anne, who we meet briefly, has been murdered. Many aspects of the murder give Kali doubts about whether it is a copycat crime, and leave her struggling with the thought that she, Anne, and Owen Nelson (now running for governor, but currently the DA) may have convicted an innocent man. The identity of Anne's murderer, who seemingly continues to kill, becomes more obscure as the novel progresses, with a sad and unexpected twist in the conclusion.Without any time in the courtroom, Jacobs focuses her skills on the characters who try to put together the evidence, Kali, the two detectives on the case, Lou and Bryce (think George Dzundza and Chris Noth, the original detectives on Law & Order), Dr. Dunworthy, the original profiler, and Nash, who is fighting for his career, and ultimately his life. Jacobs gives us excellent character sketches of all, and allows the story to be told from various points of view. There are excellent supporting characters in Nash's family, Selby and Alex, in Gloria, Kali's secretary, and in slimeballs Al Gomez, a publicity starved attorney, and Nathan Sloane, a strange stalker that Kali mistakenly becomes involved with.There's some comic relief and a pretty on-target girlfriend relationship between Kali and Margot, a male neighbor in the process of becoming a woman...who's quite over-the-top...even to the extent of having 4 wolfhounds.All in all, Jacobs writes strong characters, with a believable, intricate and interesting plot, enough romance to keep the reader guessing, and a heroine sometimes torn by uncertainty in her career and in her personal life.Jacobs has style and I'm going to hurry and read some of her earlier material, and hope that it's as enjoyable as "Cold Justice".

I truly enjoyed reading this book. I like the character development and pace. HOWEVER - and this is a "biggie" for me - I was able to figure out who the real culprit was almost from the moment the character was introduced - the author made the mistake of revealing too much about this person's physical discription and the vehicle they drove - plus there was "motive". Perhaps I've read WAY to many mysteries and watched too much "Perry Mason" as a kid. The author did an excellent job of allowing for many "possibles" which sometimes made me think "maybe it's so and so??" - but alas when the identify of the killer was uncovered I was NOT at all surprised. This is the first of Ms Jacob's books that I've read and will most likely try another. I DO like the character Kali - she's very real.

I will definitely read the next book in the series. The stories are well-written, believable, and accurate with regard to procedure. The author has a gift for giving you plenty of suspects so you can be a partner in solving the mystery. There were several times where I thought I had the killer pinned, only to find another option. I think this was a great deal of fun, well-written, and although I would not say I couldn't put it down it did hold my attention and keep me guessing till the very end.

And certainly not "exquisite"!!! I grew weary with the redundancy of information about the crimes. Also, MANY of the details were absolutely unnecessary to the plot, such as the pink swimsuit. I determined who the killer was long before the end, so it was irritating to plow through more repetition and unnecessary details to make sure I was right.

Trying to find a copycat killer sends the police and the DA's office looking at a variety of suspects. Bryce Keating and Kali O'Brien work together in this well thought out murder thriller. Good characters and lots of strings to follow before the unravelling. Very well written, will look for more from this author

I liked it very much. It was complicated, lots of detail, lots of character development, never enough to give it all away. I did wish the story went a little faster. While I appreciated all the detail, I wanted the story to move at a page turning, take my breath away speed.

Oh, I liked this book! Kali is a great character along with Lou and Bryce. I had suspicions throughout the story but did not know the villain until very close to the end. I gave it a four instead of a 5 because it needs a little bit of word proofreading...not much.

I ran out of Perri O'Shaunessy books and found Jonnie Jacobs on Amazon. Her books are very similar to the Nina Reilly novels but in my opinion not as well written. While I was not impressed with her earlier books, I have to say that Cold Justice was a big improvement. Very suspenseful; good plot, and definitely worth reading.