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Tami Hoag initially came to the attention of readers as a romance novelist, but now fans of the suspense genre are becoming aware of her talent for writing taut thrillers. Her 2004 novel, KILL THE MESSENGER, combined identifiable characters with a genuine mystery and resulted in another personal best for her. Therefore, readers who jumped on the Hoag bandwagon will find much to love in PRIOR BAD ACTS, her latest work of fiction.
PRIOR BAD ACTS marks the return of Minneapolis police detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, last seen in Hoag's 2000 novel DUST TO DUST. That event alone makes this new book worth picking up. Kovac is a rumpled knight whose tough exterior is as effective at scaring the bad guys as it is in protecting (and hiding) his soft interior self. Liska is Kovac's wisecracking foil. In lesser hands than Hoag's, Liska would be irritating. Here, however, she shows a tough tenderness, designed to mask the genuine if platonic affection that exists between the two of them, even as they seek to protect a Minneapolis judge from a threatened attack that has no shortage of suspects.
The Honorable Carey Moore makes an extremely unpopular decision in a motion hearing at the beginning of PRIOR BAD ACTS. Karl Dahl is the sole defendant in a brutal triple murder case. While Dahl has a prior record that raises the hackles of the prosecution, he has never been arrested for violent crimes. Moore rules (quite correctly, actually) that evidence of his prior bad acts cannot be used in his murder trial. This decision does not sit well with the police, the prosecutor's office, or the general public. Shortly after the ruling is issued, two things happen: Moore is violently attacked as she leaves the courthouse, and Dahl manages to escape from Sheriff's custody. Kovac and Liska are assigned to investigate the attack on Moore and keep it from happening again. Neither of them wants the assignment, but Dahl's escape raises the ante, and Kovac, in spite of himself, finds that he is slowly but inexorably becoming attracted to Moore.
When Kovac's investigation indicates that Moore's husband could possibly be the instigator of the attack, Kovac throws caution to the wind and becomes a force of nature, stopping at nothing to uncover the truth behind the attack, as two figures --- one vengeful, one obsessed --- circle Moore for their own reasons. The stakes are raised when Moore is kidnapped out from under the watchful eye of the Minneapolis police, and Kovac finds himself in a race against time to rescue a woman who is both a noted jurist and someone he is slowly coming to love.
Those who have sampled Hoag's past work would do well to read PRIOR BAD ACTS. Her timing and pacing are flawless, and her constantly shifting perspectives heighten the atmosphere and keep the pages turning at a rapid pace. There are plenty of surprises here, and while Hoag uses sleight of hand and misdirection as plot devices, she always plays fairly so that readers aren't fooled any more than they want to be. PRIOR BAD ACTS is so well-written, however, that by book's end you won't care how wrong --- or right --- you are. Recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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