Bad Blood – Book 20 of 23: A Kate Shugak Investigation.

Another good read.

One hundred years of bad blood between the Alaskan villages of Kushtaka and Kuskulana come to a boil when the body of a young Kushtaka ne’er-do-well is found wedged in a fish wheel.

Sergeant Jim Chopin’s prime suspect is a Kuskulana man who is already in trouble in both villages for falling in love across the river.

But when the suspect disappears, members of both tribes refuse to speak to Jim.

When a second murder that looks suspiciously like payback occurs, Jim has no choice but to call in Kate Shugak for help. This time, though, her Park relationships may not be enough to sort out the truth hidden in the tales of tragedy and revenge.

A great story teller.

A Prison Diary is a series of three books of diaries written by Jeffrey Archer during his time in prisons following his convictions for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Each volume is named after a part of Dante‘s The Divine Comedy. The volumes become progressively longer due to his stay being longer and longer at each prison in which he was confined.

Volume 1: Belmarsh: Hell

This book, written under the nom de plume FF 8282, documents Archer’s introduction to the prison system.

He was to spend the first 22 days and 14 hours in HMP Belmarsh, a double A-Category high-security prison in South London. Although Archer spent less than a month there, Belmarsh is described as a real hell-hole. Despite this, many of the inmates are extremely kind to him and regale him with anecdotes, which he duly records.

One such prisoner apparently spoken of is the inspiration to one of his short stories from Cat O’Nine Tales, “It Can’t Be October Already”.

On the other hand, some of the information Archer learns in his three weeks at Belmarsh is extremely disturbing, and he makes great play of imagining that the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, ought to be reading it and asks for his attention.

One theme is the fact that some inmates are thrown into cells for first time offences even though the cellmate is a hardened criminal or murderer and/or drug addict.

No One to Trust (2002) by Iris Johansen is a kinda dumb, easy to read, fast paced thriller.

The story follows Elena Kyler, a trained military sniper and assassin on the run from Rico Chavez, a ruthless Colombian drug lord and the father of her five-year-old son.

Desperate to keep her son from being raised in Chavez’s image, she turns to Sean Galen, a mysterious and capable operative.

Together, they flee across the country, facing a trail of murders and a final showdown as they realize there is truly “no one to trust”. 

Not bad.

Rough Justice is a legal thriller by Lisa Scottoline.

Published 1997, it serves as the third book in her popular Rosato & Associates series, which centres on a dynamic, all-female law firm based in Philadelphia.

Criminal defense attorney Marta Richter is just hours away from securing an acquittal for her client, Elliot Steere, a wealthy real estate mogul on trial for killing a homeless man in what he claims was self-defense during a carjacking.

However, right as the jury leaves to deliberate, Steere lets slip the chilling truth: he is completely guilty and completely unrepentant. 

Infuriated by the manipulation, Marta turns against her own client.

She races against the clock to uncover the evidence needed to convict him before the jury returns a “not guilty” verdict. To help her search, she recruits two young associates from the local firm Rosato & Associates—Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier.