Author: Marcia Clark
Genre: Mystery, legal thriller
Published on: July 8, 2014 by Mulholland Books (first hardcover edition)
A Columbine-style shooting at a high school in the San Fernando Valley has left a community shaken to its core. Two students are identified as the killers. Both are dead, believed to have committed a mutual suicide.
In the aftermath of the shooting, LA Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight teams up with her best girlfriend, LAPD detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey interview students at the high school, they realize that the facts don't add up. Could it be that the students suspected of being the shooters are actually victims? And if so, does that mean that the real killers are still on the loose?
A dramatic leap forward in Marcia Clark's highly acclaimed Rachel Knight series, The Competition is an unforgettable story that will stay with readers long after the last page has been turned.
Three books in, famous prosecutor turned novelist Marcia Clark has proved her amazing talent. The Rachel Knight legal thriller series is phenomenal. Can The Competition top the stunning third entry in its series? As usual, a few months have passed since the events of Killer Ambition. Rachel Knight and her police detective partner Bailey Keller are pretty much household names now. They solved one of the most high-profile cases to have emerged in LA. This doesn’t mean Rachel and Bailey get stopped for autographs now, though. They’ve gone about their normal lives...as normal as they can be.
The Competition starts from the point of view of two students at Fairmont High, a local LA school. Christy Shilling is a girl who’s worked too hard to make the varsity cheerleading team. Harley Jenson is a studious boy who seeks to win a scholarship to MIT. Their next day at school, things seem like they’ll go as usual. Except, what should have been a normal school day is brutally interrupted. Two unidentified shooters open fire at a pep rally, killing several students instantly. Sadly, one of them seems to be Christy. My heart went out to her. It was so unfair that Christy got killed the day of her debut as a cheerleader. So much hard work, only to be killed when she's had all but a sip of success. Harley’s fate is left ambiguous, though.
Bailey learns about the shooting almost right away. She enlists Rachel’s help. The latter stops to think about it for a second (the scene will be bad; I mean, these are kids who got killed). Always ready to fight for justice, Rachel agrees to take the case. When she and Bailey get to the school, the scene is nothing short of appalling. These are the saddest first chapters a Rachel Knight novel has had yet. It's soon evident that the scene at Fairmont is worse than what happened at Columbine.
In the aftermath, Rachel and Bailey find out that the shooters committed suicide after the massacre. They’re found with their faces shot off, so they can’t be ID’d right away. Given the severity of the situation, the head coroner arrives at the scene in person. Dr. Shoe’s findings make it fairly certain that things aren’t the way they look. Rachel isn’t going to be left redundant. She may well have someone to prosecute. This is needed, or the book wouldn’t go anywhere further. If the culprits were really dead, The Competition would be a much shorter novel.
Bailey and Rachel start investigating right away. If the shooter (or shooters) did get away, finding them is imperative. They’ve already proven not to be your garden-variety criminal. Planning and carrying out a school shooting, and escaping afterward, is no small feat. Once again, Rachel Knight faces a cunning main antagonist. This seems to have become a staple of the series. Every villain so far has been wicked-smart and hard to catch. Rachel will have to pull out all the stops to catch the bad guy (or guys) now.
For me, The Competition was a fabulous fourth entry in the Rachel Knight series. It's so different from the previous books. Prosecuting adult culprits is one thing, but juveniles is totally another. Sadly, I didn't find it shocking that a high school student could be so evil. That's no novelty anymore. The main villain in this novel is still blood-curdling, though. As for the novel itself, I hope it's not the last Rachel Knight book. MILD SPOILER AHEAD: >>> The author still hasn't revealed what really happened to Rachel's sister. Of all the plot threads that are left unresolved, this is the most disappointing. <<< END OF SPOILER. Fingers crossed that there'll be at least one more book in this series.
My rating: ★★★★ 1/2
4.5 stars - A fantastic page-turner!
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