Blood of Angels

New York: Harper Torch, 2005. Mass Market Paperback. Good. 384 pp; spine creasing, edge wear; This is a gripping thriller. From the author of "The Last Goodbye" ("The best thing a thriller can be: suspenseful, intelligent and well-written" Harlan Coben) comes another gripping thriller, the story of a man trying to outrun his own past. Thomas Dennehy, senior prosecutor in Davidson County, Tennessee, doesn't recognize Nashville anymore: a decade of relentless immigration means cops are learning Spanish, and the DA's office is looking for Vietnamese translators. Thomas' latest case is prosecuting Moses Bol, a Sudanese refugee who faces the death penalty for killing a white woman in the Nations, a notorious, racially-charged part of town. Bol's conviction seems certain, until a university professor claims Thomas has sent the wrong man to the death chamber in a previous, also racially-charged case. The DA's office is rocked to the core, but another blow falls within days: a beautiful and brilliant anti-death penalty activist mysteriously surfaces as Bol's alibi, claiming she was with him at the time of the crime. Bol's case becomes a lightning rod as protestors on all sides converge on Nashville, threatening to tear the city apart.Meanwhile, Thomas learns that the gorgeous woman who is Bol's alibi has her own secrets- and is terrified of someone working behind the scenes to get what he wants - even if it means murder.