Interest of Justice

Signet, 1994. Paperback. Good. Sleeping with a cop would seem like the last thing a judge under investigat ion for dating a defense attorney should do, but Lara Sanderstone is such a n intelligent, finely detailed character that even the unlikeliest plot twi sts work in this absorbing legal thriller by the author of Mitigating Circu mstances. When her sister and brother-in-law are brutally slain, Lara's ord erly life begins to fall apart. She inherits responsibility for their troub led teenage son Josh, who may have been involved in the murder; she is accu sed of judicial impropriety (for protecting her brother-in-law as well as f or succumbing to the charms of a self-centered lawyer); and after fellow ju dge Leo Evergreen convinces her to release a defendant in one of her cases, the man's fingerprints are found in her ransacked house by Sgt. Ted Ricker son. Lara's budding romance with Ted, her attempts to win over her sullen n ephew and crisp courtroom scenes combine to create an exciting narrative, r elated in propulsive yet unobtrusive prose.