Author: Marcia Clark
Genre: Mystery, legal thriller
Published on: June 18, 2013 by Mulholland Books
When the daughter of a billionaire Hollywood director is found murdered after what appears to be a kidnapping gone wrong, Los Angeles Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight and Detective Bailey Keller find themselves at the epicenter of a combustible and high-profile court case. Then a prime suspect is revealed to be one of Hollywood's most popular and powerful talent managers--and best friend to the victim's father. With the director vouching for the manager's innocence, the Hollywood media machine commences an all-out war designed to discredit both Rachel and her case. KILLER AMBITION is at once a thrilling ride through the darker side of Tinseltown and a stunning courtroom drama with the brilliant insider's perspective that Marcia Clark is uniquely qualified to give.
Rachel Knight’s legal thriller series is among my favorite reads of the year now. The titular Special Trials DA returns with a third entry. Killer Ambition picks up after a months-long time gap. This has become the custom for this series. Rachel has continued handling trials during the “hiatus”. She’s also going on dates with her boyfriend, Lieutenant Graden Hales. They hit a big bump in Guilt by Degrees. Rachel and Graden are on much better terms now.
In the previous two books, Rachel is the one who picked up the big story-long case. This time, it’s her best friend Detective Bailey Keller’s turn. She hears about the new case first, and asks Rachel to accompany her. They learn that Hayley Antonovich, the daughter of Russell Antonovich (a highly-acclaimed movie director) has been kidnapped. As is standard MO for them, Rachel and Bailey interview Hayley’s family and acquaintances. From the start, this is looking to be the duo’s biggest case yet. Russell is all but royalty in LA. He has several houses, and his main one is huge and located in the Palisades.
Early into the investigation, Rachel and Bailey learn about a key person of interest. He’s Brian Shandling, Hayley’s secret boyfriend. She told her best friend about him but not her family. The duo wonder if Brian is the one who kidnapped Hayley. Rachel has high hopes that she’ll find the girl alive. Hayley is just sixteen, a girl with hopes and a whole life ahead of her. Part of the reason Rachel’s hoping to find Hayley alive is because of her sister Romi. The latter was abducted about twenty years ago. It changed Rachel’s life forever.
To Rachel’s and Bailey’s shock, the case takes a dreadful turn. Bodies are found, one of them by sheer luck. It changes the investigators’ hypothesis about what happened. They wait for the criminologist, Dorian Struck—a highly talented and meticulous woman—to get back with results. Meanwhile, an electronic device gives Rachel and Bailey another clue to follow. By the time they catch up with it, unexpected news arrives. Soil and blood evidence points to Ian Powers, Russell’s manager and best friend, as the killer. Ian was like a second father to Hayley, so to think that he murdered her in cold blood is horrible.
Ian is as powerful in Hollywood as Russell. To go after him is tantamount to career suicide, but it doesn't put Rachel off. She and Bailey obtain a warrant to arrest Ian. This is the beginning of Rachel’s most whirlwind and high-profile case yet. As they say, when you shoot at the king, you better not miss. Unsurprisingly, Ian appoints powerful lawyers to defend him. One of them is Terry Fisk, a strict and hard-hitting woman. This greatly worries Rachel, but she doesn’t show it. Rachel has never been in a trial against Fisk, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
During Rachel’s previous two big cases, she spent a lot of time in the field with Bailey. That was because they were after the culprit. They followed leads to find the bad guy’s identity and catch him. In Killer Ambition, Rachel and Bailey arrest their guy halfway through. But is he the real killer? Having the primary suspect in custody makes for a very different novel. Although Rachel Knight is a prosecutor, she didn’t spend much time in the previous books actually prosecuting. Rachel acted as an investigator through most of the story. This time, we see Rachel spend most of her time in court. The trial is huge, and it takes up a lot of time. I liked seeing Rachel in court doing prosecuting work. Some may find it boring, but it was fascinating for me. If you've been itching to see Rachel in action during a trial, this is your book.
Another change is that Rachel faces a different kind of danger. In her previous cases, Rachel got threats against her life. Now, the threat is against her career. If Rachel loses People v. Ian Powers, forget about spending the rest of her life trying misdemeanors. She’d be fired, which would be catastrophic. Prosecuting is all Rachel knows how to do. It doesn’t help that pretty much everything that could go bad does go bad. This all makes Killer Ambition the most thrilling book in the Rachel Knight series yet. If you thought Sabrina from Guilt by Degrees was a difficult antagonist, Ian Powers will change your mind big time. Rachel hasn’t faced such a cunning opponent yet. This book was an outstanding read. It’ll be hard for a sequel to top it.
My rating: ★★★★ 1/2
4.5 stars - A fantastic page-turner!
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