Buried Evidence

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Lily Forester, one of suspense fiction's most intriguing and unique heroines, made her debut in Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's bestselling thriller, Mitigating Circumstances. Lily was an ambitious district attorney when she and her daughter, Shana, were attacked and raped by a vicious killer. Though they escaped with their lives, Lily sought her own form of vengeance, fearing that justice would never be served. Now, six years later, Lily's cold-blooded murder of the man she thought was responsible for the attack has come back to haunt her. Not only is her deed about to be exposed, jeopardizing her career in the Santa Barbara D.A.'s office; her sense of guilt is driving her to the edge, particularly since she knows she killed the wrong man.

When Lily's deadbeat ex-husband, John, gets behind the wheel of a car after a few too many drinks, he runs down a pedestrian and then flees the scene. When he is later arrested, he decides to blackmail Lily by threatening to tell the police about the man she killed, unless she bails him out and loans him money. To make matters worse, Lily learns that the man who really did rape her and Shana has recently been paroled and seen in the area of Shana's apartment. And rumor has it he's carrying a picture of Shana around in his wallet.

The only bright spot in Lily's life is the return of Richard Fowler, a brilliant defense attorney and the man she fell in love with six years before. Richard also knows the truth about Lily, but that's little consolation when John decides to spill the beans in a moment of desperation and Lily finds herself in the hot seat in a reopened homicide investigation. Balancing her career, her love life, and her and her daughter's safety taxes Lily to the limit. Finally, things escalate to the point where Lily realizes she can no longer hide behind her lies, though she knows the truth may well destroy her and everyone she loves.

The return of Lily Forester should be welcome news to Rosenberg's old fans, and the screaming suspense of Buried Evidence should earn her a cadre of new ones. (Beth Amos)

Beth Amos is the author of several novels, including Second Sight, Eyes of Night, and Cold White Fury.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Rosenberg cannot be accused of pandering to the reader. One is never sure who to root for in her latest kinetic crime thriller, as usual set in Southern California. The protagonist of Mitigating Circumstances, feisty, red-headed Lily Forrester, formerly of the Ventura DA's office, is now DA in Santa Barbara. Her ex-husband, John Forrester, who has been living with their 18-year-old daughter, Shana, is losing his battle with the bottle and has been arrested for vehicular manslaughter. He was driving Shana's car when he hit and killed a young man--a student, like Shana, at UCLA. John blackmails Lily into bailing him out of jail, bartering Lily's secret in an effort to escape prosecution. (Six years before, Shana was brutally raped while Lily was forced to look on, and Lily shot and killed the wrong man in retaliation.) The real rapist has recently been released on parole and is once again stalking the two women. Enter Lily's former love-interest, Richard Fowler, who resurfaces in her life as the lawyer for a man Lily is prosecuting for attempting to poison his handicapped daughter. Richard ends up representing Lily (after dumping his live-in girlfriend) when the police attempt to sort out the many subplots and solve a six-year-old crime no one really cares about. Rosenberg addresses questions of conscience: the man Lily shot was himself a serial killer. Should she be prosecuted for bumping him off? Prone to hysteria, whining and selfishness, the characters presented here are barely likable. Still, the plot presents a compelling moral dilemma, the action is fast-paced and the pages turn easily. $300,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author appearances in Los Angeles and New York. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Internet Book Watch

She is considered one of the best prosecuting attorneys assigned to the Santa Barbara District Attorney's Office. Lily Forrester firmly believes in the law and punishment for those who break it. Six years ago (see Mitigating Circumstances), Lily and her daughter were victims of a heinous crime until she took the law into her own hands. Lily has never forgiven herself for her actions, but knows she must move on to help her precious daughter enjoy a normal life. When Lily's ex-husband is arrested for vehicular homicide, her life teeters on the brink of disaster. He threatens to reveal what he thinks he knows about that crime she committed six years ago if she does not bail him out and obtain a reputable representative to defend him. To add to her confusion, the man she loves, defense attorney Richard Fowler, is back in her life demanding a future together. Even when her former spouse squeals on her to cut a deal on his charges, Richard remains by her side. It has been too long a time since Nancy Taylor Rosenberg has had a book published, but anyone who loves a terse legal thriller will know she has not lost her magic touch. Buried Evidence stars a beleaguered heroine in an action-packed story line that starts on page one and never eases on the throttle until the last page is done. Readers will never be sure they know the outcome because the subplots take the audience to and from the central theme with an ease that will leave the audience wondering how the novel will end. Her latest novel has plenty of evidence proving that Ms. Rosenberg remains one of the sub-genre's top maestros.
—Internet Book Watch

Kirkus Reviews

Six years after she lashed out at the rapist who attacked her and her daughter, vaulting her author to the first of six bestselling suspensers (Mitigating Circumstances, 1992), Santa Barbara A.D.A. Lily Forrester is back. So is the rapist.