The Eleventh Victim

Overview

"Seconds passed; minutes. She could hear movement now in the waiting room she had just left...it was the metal magazine rack she was sure, that crashed to the tile floor. Then quiet. She strained to hear in the darkness. Nothing more, and then... The air moved in the room and she knew. He was here."
As a young psychology student, Hailey Dean's world explodes when Will, her fianc�, is murdered just weeks before their wedding. Reeling, she fights back the only way she knows how: In court, prosecuting violent crime...putting away the bad guys one rapist, doper, and killer at a time. But dedicating her life to justice takes a toll after years of courtroom battles and the endless tide of victims calling out from crime scene photos and autopsy tables. Just as she grows truly weary, a serial killer unlike any other she's encountered begins to stalk the city of Atlanta, targeting young prostitutes, each horrific murder bearing his own unique mark. This courtroom battle will be her last.

Hailey heads for Manhattan to pick up the pieces of the life she had before Will's murder, training as a therapist. In a vibrant new world, she finally leaves her ghosts behind. But then her own clients are brutally murdered one by one by a copycat using the same M.O. as the Atlanta killer she hunted down years before. As the body count rises across Manhattan, Hailey is forced to match wits not only against a killer, but the famed NYPD.

Unless she returns to her former life and solves the case, still more innocent people will die at the hands of a killer who plans to get her, before she can get him!

Editorial Reviews

TV personality and bestseller Grace (Objection! with Diane Clehane) makes her fiction debut with a less than compelling thriller starring a heroine much like herself, Hailey Dean, a highly successful Atlanta assistant DA who loses her fianc? to violence. After a final courtroom triumph, the conviction of chef Clint Burrell Cruise for the murder of 11 prostitutes, Dean resigns her prosecutor post and moves to Manhattan, where within two years she has a new career as a therapist. When someone starts to murder her patients with an m.o. similar to Cruise's, Dean becomes a suspect. Rather implausibly, neither the NYPD nor Dean is aware that Cruise has been released from prison after the reversal of his conviction on appeal. Little inconsistencies, like calling Cruise "the most prolific serial killer ever to stalk the city of Atlanta," even though many would award that dubious honor to real-life child-killer Wayne Williams (referred to in the text), don't help. (Aug.)

Author Information

Bio of Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace joined Court TV from the Atlanta Fulton County District Attorney's Office where she served for a decade as Special Prosecutor of major felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation and arson. Grace compiled a perfect record of nearly 100 felony convictions at trial and no losses. One of television's most respected legal analysts, Grace is currently the host of Court TV's trial coverage program Nancy Grace: Closing Arguments, which airs from 3-5pm ET/PT, as well as a series of Court TV live primetime news specials. In addition, she hosts the primetime legal analysis program Nancy Grace on Headline News. Grace has appeared as a legal commentator on CNN's Larry King Live, ABC's Good Morning America, The View, The Oprah Winfrey Show and numerous other cable and network programs. Her first book, Objection!, in which she addresses America's justice system focusing on high profile and celebrity defendants, was released in June 2005 and immediately hit the New York Times Bestseller List. Grace is the recipient of two American Women in Radio & Television Gracie Awards, both for her Nancy Grace Investigates primetime report on Court TV and for Individual Achievement for Best Program Host. She has also been recognized for her ongoing support and advocacy of victims' rights by various groups, including the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation; Crime Victims United of California and The Retreat. She was a Law Review graduate of Mercer Law School and received her LLM in constitutional and criminal law from New York University. She has written articles for the American Bar Association Journal, various law reviews, and op-eds. She was also a litigation instructor at Georgia State University School of Law and a Business Law Instructor at GSU's School of Business. Previously, Grace clerked with a federal court judge and practiced antitrust and consumer protection law with the Federal Trade Commission. A lover of Shakespearean literature, Grace's plan to become an English professor was derailed by the random murder of her fianc ' . The incident propelled her to enroll in law school and set her on the path to become a felony prosecutor and an outspoken victims' rights advocate. Grace helped staff the hotline at an Atlanta Battered Women's Center for 10 years.

Customer Reviews

• Style=Grisham meets Clark

  Posted September 08, 2009 by Janis, Chino Hills, CA

  Styled like John Grisham meets Mary Higgins Clark. A great read, great story, great characters and some wry humor (weiner dogs!). Didn't want to put it down :-)

• Nancy Grace is the Best

  Posted September 11, 2009 by Sharon Vander May, Blairstown N.J.

  A fast read. It started a little slow but got better and better. Hope Nancy can find time to write more.

• didn't see the ending coming - surprised me

  Posted September 27, 2009 by Susan, Alto New Mexico

  This is the first Nancy Grace novel I have read. A page turner.

Additional Info

Imprint

Hyperion Press

Filesize

1.59 MB

Number of Pages

368

eBook ISBN

9781401394530