Natural Law - Hardcover

Schanker, D.R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312266847 ISBN 13: 9780312266844

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2001

Synopsis

The sequel to Edgar-nominated A Criminal Appeal marks the return of Nora Lumsey: self-described "big-boned" deputy public defender with a passion for justice, a weakness for the wrong men, and a talent for putting herself in the line of fire. This time, Nora investigates the grotesque murder of her ex-lover - a womanizing, cocaine-addicted law professor who espouses Darwinism. Natural Law also introduces Luther Cox, a rural police detective who consults the I-Ching and paints landscapes, and who must confront evidence of his role in a police cover-up involving a crime committed by one of the local university's star basketball players. As the plot unfolds, Nora and Luther find themselves both allied and at odds as they ferret out a sordid conspiracy implicating a civic-minded pimp who plays violin in the local symphony, twin teenage trailer-park prostitutes named Stormi and Sunni Skye, and a university basketball coach with a genius for manipulation and a taste for the wild side.

A brilliantly detailed portrait of a stratified community in which drugs, sex, basketball, and murder accord social equality, Natural Law is at once a philosophical mystery and page-turning thriller that will leave readers enthralled with the breadth of its vision and the depth of its emotional resonance.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Set against a backdrop of academia, law and Hoosier basketball mania, this sensitive novel may be more Oprah's Book Club material than mystery, were it not for the gruesome body count. An arrogant law professor, with no shortage of enemies and a seedy private life, turns up garroted and mutilated in a field. Meanwhile, Nora Lumsey, a deputy public defender in Indianapolis, is representing a young prostitute, Stormi Skye, on a drug charge. Both Nora and her client are connected to the dead professor, professionally and intimately. When Stormi's twin sister, Sunni (also a prostitute), is murdered in the same way, Harrison County police suspect a serial killer, while detective Luther Cox finds clues that threaten to resurrect a dark moment from his past. Should Luther implicate himself in a police cover-up from a rape case involving a young basketball star? Or should he let the murderer go free? In this follow-up to the Edgar-nominated Criminal Appeal, Schanker deftly examines her characters' moral failures, making the reader sympathetic yet all the more eager to see them do the right thing. Prostitutes, policemen and lawyers are victims and victimizers alike, making bad choices and then being forced to pay for them until they can find redemption within themselves. The plot is engaging until the end, when the author pushes things over the edge for the sake of a flashy finish. Readers of Jane Hamilton may notice similarities in tone and in the depiction of smalltown desperation. Agent, Laura Blake Peterson.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

A corpse is found in an Indiana cornfield. The discovery of the body, that of a distinguished but controversial and greatly despised law professor, draws in a hard-luck hooker, a conflicted and self-hating public defender, and a depressive, artistic cop. This is the second appearance for the public defender, Nora Lumsey, who starred in Schanker's preceding procedural, the Edgar-nominated A Criminal Appeal (1998). In this character-complex sequel, Lumsey, a woman who, feeling herself an outcast, is drawn to her scum-of-the-earth clients, shares the spotlight with the cop on the case, Luther Cox. Shanker effectively shuttles back and forth between their perspectives, giving the reader a view from both sides of a case that moves from raggedy trailer parks to well-appointed law-school offices to the splendidly appointed domain of the real power at the university, the rapacious basketball coach. Nice pacing, in-depth insights into the lurchings of the law, and a stunning climax. Connie Fletcher
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About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312266847
• ISBN 13: 9780312266844
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256