Her Deadly Game

Her Deadly Game

The tension mounts from the first page as two detectives are called to a gruesome murder scene that will haunt them every night for a long time. Cliff Doyle is the victim but who brutally beat him even after he died? One year later Ford and Rossi the same two detectives are called to a different murder scene that would mirror that first in some respects, but the victim was in a wheelchair and the facts and the cause of death not really clear. Anne LaRussa is the victim, and her husband Vince is the prime suspect who claims he came home after speaking at a charity event as a children’s hospital and found his wife dead. A bullet to the back of her head he claims, and the police are on it from the start. As they take in the scene, go through the many rooms, draws and areas of the home, the ME is called, the MOPD is called that might prosecute the case and then the hammer falls but in different places. Was he really at the event? What is the time frame when he arrived him, found her and called 911? Some things add up and others do not as Vince LaRussa finds himself in need of an attorney and the events spiral in many directions as Keera Dugan takes center stage as the attorney for this man but her lack of experience might not help her win this case but her ability to assess, think before reacting and her chess skills might increase her chances as Miller Ambrose the prosecutor takes aim at her for many reasons but why?
The crime scene was gruesome and the gun why was it where it was and what is the meaning of a ghost gun and just who did it belong to? Then trying to get the security video the prosecutor took it and now Vince had to access it from his laptop or phone and what they uncover is that two people were there to see his wife, one her lawyer and the other her doctor but why? Photos were taken of Vince and Lisa Bennett her doctor thinking he was cheating on her and the prenup would kick him ruining his life and more. Did he kill her?
The evidence is not always there and it is limited but the prosecution thought they had enough for an arrest, but her PI JP Harrison assesses the crime scene, makes his own predictions and assessments and Keera is chosen to defend him but does she have what it takes?
The case has many holes, yet the prosecutor thinks it’s a slam dunk until she receives a strange email from someone named Jack Worthington a character in a play by Oscar Wilde and did Anne pretend to be him and who was pretending to be him now as Keera manages to speak with the PI that took the pictures what is her role in all of this? 

Rossi need the fingerprints of doorknobs, refrigerator, handles and everything within the house of the murder victim plus the author tells how someone can order a kit to create their own ghost gun and more. Anne needed intense PT but stopped it at the end and as the story moves on we learn more about her real medical condition from the ME and the fact that her husband because of what is revealed would not need to take her life to prevent or stop the Prenup from going into effect. 

The two meet Defense and Prosecutor you can tell by the way the Judge deals with them that Keera is fighting a downhill battle as Ambrose blindsides her. Not allowing him to see her anger she answers a comment made by the judge but there is much more to come before the trial date. As she meets with Vince then learns more about his swindling, embezzling and fleecing the Fraternity where he hired students as drivers for those that got drunk. Using the money from their treasury to pay for his Vince LaRussa Drives business he gets away with not paying for rent and more until he escapes. But, never getting any time in jail and now he is up for murder as Keera and JP uncover some interesting information about Lisa, Anne’s best friend and exploring the shed where the garden tools were placed and finding something that leads them to where the potassium nitrate came from that was found in his kitchen.

A trial so compelling and so informative that the author recreated true to life scenes that you feel that you are in the courtroom with the lawyers, witnesses and the defendant. As Keera unravels something about the past of her client, begins to understand the deals he created in business, and we learn what Anne unveils you understand the true meaning of the title HER DEADLY GAME and who was behind it and why.

As each side presented its case and the prosecution did not allow certain medical evidence, Keera managed to refute it all and in the end when the verdict is read who wins, who loses or is it a draw?
A man whose past was hidden, a man who created his own image, a man who robbed from the rich to give it to himself, a man whose life was a big LIE! How did Anne really die? What role did Bennett play and who was Jack Worthington? A game of chess requires that your moves are strategic and that you carefully place your pawns, queens or knights where your opponent cannot claim them and remove them from the board. Her mode of handling this case was like playing a game of chess but the players were real, human and had more flaws than most would expect. With the help of JP Harrison, a video and five major points author Robert Dugoni recreated a murder case that was original, well thought out, researched and easily followed by this reviewer as you wonder could in the end this really happen? How did Anne die? Why do you know she was into the truth about Vince? What was the final verdict and why did Keera feel unsettled? When her father walks into the courtroom plastered, when the judge admonishes her and her father, when she does the same to the prosecutor and the verdict is read: Is this a win, lose or draw? Her Deadly Game some are more than others. Go back to the first scene and the murder of Cliff Doyle, recreate it in your own mind. Go forward and recreate that of Anne and then decide the common denominator and learn the true meaning of greed, fraud, Ponzi Scheme and deception as the trial comes to a close and the ending will shock you to the core.

Fran Lewis Just reviews