Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag
- Fiction, Mystery -
review by Amanda
borrowed paperback from library
Links
Author’s Website : http://www.tamihoag.com/
Amazon : hardback / paperback / eBook
Add To Your GoodReads TBR list
This book in 6 words:
A thrilling book with multiple subplots.
Why did I read this? And am I glad I did?
I chose to read this book because I have read and enjoyed other books by Tami Hoag in the past. I think I was drawn to this one because it is also set in Minneapolis. I am glad that I read this book. It was a good solid mystery that wasn’t too predictable. It was kind of fun reading a book set in a place I’m familiar with.
Brief Summary
It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl’s prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry—and puts the judge in grave danger.
When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis’s top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn’t far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.
The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped—snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.
With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.
(via Amazon)
Plot/Pacing/Writing Style
The pacing was great up until the middle of the book, where it dragged for a while. I struggled getting through the next hundred or so pages, but it eventually picked back up toward the end. I did like the plot, and how the book seemed to be made up of different sub-plots that eventually weaved its way into one. I didn’t think that the book was too predictable, but it did sow the seeds of what was to come early on. If you read a lot of mysteries, you would probably pick up on it pretty quickly.
Characters
I loved Detective Sam Kovac. He was perhaps no different from many of the detectives you find in other mystery/detective books, but I didn’t mind. I found the characters to be believable and likable, though I feel like I should know Kovac and Liska better – whether because there are other books that feature them, or it was not explained in the book, I’m not really sure.
Favorite Quotes
“…and women always want to open up the heads of men and drag their thoughts out into the light like a tangled mess of string to be sorted out and rolled up neatly.” -Stan Dempsey
“‘Minnesotans hate zeal,’ Elwood said. ‘Zeal is right up there on the list of suspicious emotional behaviors like joy and despair.’” (Oh, Minnesotans. How so right this can be)
“But that’s what bravery is: to be afraid and do what you have to do anyway. You can’t have courage without fear.” -Detective Kovac
Recommendations
If you like Tami Hoag, you should like this. As a mystery, it doesn’t stand out as being overly amazing, but it’s not bad either.
