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A Specter of Justice

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"A good choice for anyone who enjoys small-town mysteries and ghost stories." —Booklist

When private detective Sam Blackman agrees to help his partner and lover, Nakayla Robertson, conduct a fundraiser for orphaned twin boys, he does so to ease his conscience. The boys' parents were killed in a courtroom shootout where Sam was the key witness against the twins' father.

The charity event, a nighttime ghost tour of the legendary haunted sites of Asheville, North Carolina, seems harmless enough. Sam only has to tell the story of a grief-stricken woman who hanged herself from an old, arched stone bridge. "Helen, come forth!" he cries. Sam and his tour-goers expect the actress playing Helen's ghost to walk toward them from the bridge's dark recesses. Instead, her body tumbles from overhead and dangles at the end of a noose. Someone has reenacted the legend with deadly authenticity.

When a second murder mimics another old ghost tale, the police fear a macabre serial killer is on the prowl. But the case isn't Sam's to solve. Then, a tidal wave of evidence begins to point to one man—Sam's friend, defense attorney Hewitt Donaldson. Sam and Nakayla, firmly believing in Donaldson's innocence, must not only prove it, but halt a murderer seemingly bent on retribution. Does the killer's motivation rise from the present, or is Team Donaldson dealing with some specter from the past?

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 28, 2015
      In de Castrique’s lively fifth Sam Blackman mystery (after 2013’s A Murder in Passing), Sam helps organize a ghost tour of Asheville, N.C., to raise money for the two orphaned children of a client, Helen Atwood, after Helen’s abusive husband murders her. When Sam finds one of the actors in the ghost tour hanging from a noose on a bridge, he quickly transforms from volunteer tour guide to investigator. Later, after more actors start dying, suspicion for the deaths falls on Sam’s employer, DA Hewitt Donaldson. Little seems to be at stake in the languidly paced investigation, despite the high body count, but the complex relationship between Sam, a man dedicated to bringing criminals to justice, and Hewitt, a lawyer often willing to bend the law to save his clients from jail, will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Linda Allen, Linda Allen Literary Agency.

    • Library Journal

      October 1, 2015

      When two murders mimic old Asheville, NC, ghost stories and the evidence points to a friend, defense lawyer Hewitt Donaldson, PI Sam Blackman, and his girlfriend must work to find the real killer and free Hewitt. The fifth entry in a well-written regional series (after A Murder in Passing).

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      October 15, 2015
      Two little boys are orphaned when their parents are killed during a domestic-violence trial. The people of Asheville, North Carolina, plan a fund-raiser for the boys. Private investigator Sam Blackman, who had been testifying when the murders occurred and feels guilty, agrees to help out when his girlfriend, Nakayla, asks him to work with the Asheville Apparitions, who want to create a fund-raising ghost tour of the town, using members of the group as reenactors. Sam agrees to act as storyteller at the bridge where a woman hung herself years earlier. When the first tour group comes by, an actual woman tumbles down from the bridge, dangling from a noose and very much dead. Then another of the reenactors dies in a re-creation across town, and the hunt is on for the killer. Sam and Nakayla work with the police to help solve the murders, while more of the town's history unfolds. Lots of interesting characters and some nice twists help make the pages fly by. A good choice for anyone who enjoys small-town mysteries and ghost stories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

    • Kirkus

      September 1, 2015
      A pair of creepy killings seems right up North Carolina shamus Sam Blackman's alley, especially when it looks as if a good friend is being framed for the crimes. In his usual arch first-person, Sam recounts how his testimony in a spousal battery case goes haywire when the defendant, Clyde Atwood, manages to get hold of a gun and kills his wife, Heather, before courtroom cops take him down. Their young twins are left orphaned. "Shirley the Strange," office manager for Heather's attorney (and Sam's friend), Hewitt Donaldson, comes up with a loopy idea to provide an educational trust fund for the twins: a benefit tour of haunted local sites. Five colorful volunteers come out of the woodwork to help, assisted by Sam's partner and lover, Nakayla. Librarian Molly Staton portrays Helen, who hanged herself from a bridge. When Molly's found dangling equally dead during the tour, the volunteers become suspects. Sam and Nakayla probe the original story of "Helen's Bridge" as well as irregularities surrounding the current crime and the backgrounds of the suspects. One of them, Lenore Carpenter, goes missing; her body is found in a hotel room wearing the white dress that Molly was supposed to don for the tour. After examining the evidence, Detective Newly Newland of Asheville Homicide decides that Hewitt is the perp. It falls to Sam and Nakayla to find the real killer. Sam's fifth case (A Murder in Passing, 2013, etc.) is an entertaining whodunit with colorful characters, swift-footed plotting, and a confident narrative voice.

      COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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