Flawed heroes (or heroines) are nothing new in fiction. But Lily Forrester, the protagonist of Nancy Rosenberg's new novel, Buried Evidence, has a few skeletons in her closet that rattle alarmingly when her ex-husband threatens to open the door to her past. Unless Lily uses her legal connections (she's a Santa Barbara district attorney) to get him out of a drunken vehicular homicide charge in Los Angeles, he'll rat on her to the authorities. To further complicate matters, Lily's daughter Shana, a UCLA student, is the only other suspect in the hit-and-run incident. When her ex is murdered shortly after Lily bails him out, Shana, who found her father's body, is again a suspect. And Shana's being stalked by the psychopath who raped both her and her mother six years ago. Add a wrongful murder, a retired cop who lied to protect Lily, and a rich, handsome, successful lawyer who's still in love with her even though he knows her darkest secrets (or maybe because of them), and you have enough ingredients to keep this racy mystery moving a lot faster than traffic on the California freeways. Rosenberg has a deft hand with pacing and plot, although her characters seem varnished with a moral gloss that's as thin as their emotional complexity. The relationship between Lily and Shana seems particularly one-dimensional given the traumatic events they've shared. Lily's moral compromises are never resolved, even after her lover clears her of a murder she did, in fact, commit. But Rosenberg's fans won't quibble with the outcome, and the former prosecutor's latest suspense thriller will doubtless win her a few more. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
Rosenberg cannot be accused of pandering to the reader. One is never sure who to root for in her latest kinetic crime thriller, as usual set in Southern California. The protagonist of Mitigating Circumstances, feisty, red-headed Lily Forrester, formerly of the Ventura DA's office, is now DA in Santa Barbara. Her ex-husband, John Forrester, who has been living with their 18-year-old daughter, Shana, is losing his battle with the bottle and has been arrested for vehicular manslaughter. He was driving Shana's car when he hit and killed a young manAa student, like Shana, at UCLA. John blackmails Lily into bailing him out of jail, bartering Lily's secret in an effort to escape prosecution. (Six years before, Shana was brutally raped while Lily was forced to look on, and Lily shot and killed the wrong man in retaliation.) The real rapist has recently been released on parole and is once again stalking the two women. Enter Lily's former love-interest, Richard Fowler, who resurfaces in her life as the lawyer for a man Lily is prosecuting for attempting to poison his handicapped daughter. Richard ends up representing Lily (after dumping his live-in girlfriend) when the police attempt to sort out the many subplots and solve a six-year-old crime no one really cares about. Rosenberg addresses questions of conscience: the man Lily shot was himself a serial killer. Should she be prosecuted for bumping him off? Prone to hysteria, whining and selfishness, the characters presented here are barely likable. Still, the plot presents a compelling moral dilemma, the action is fast-paced and the pages turn easily. $300,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author appearances in Los Angeles and New York. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Nearly a decade ago, Rosenberg, who had worked for some years in the criminal justice system, took best-seller lists by storm with Mitigating Circumstances (1992). She published five more best-sellers with Dutton, but now shifts to Hyperion, starting with a sequel to her debut performance. When Lily Forrester took the law into her own hands in Mitigating Circumstances, her actions were at once understandable--she was pursuing a man who'd raped her and her daughter Shana--and out of character for a prosecutor who truly believed in the justice system. Six years later, Lily has divorced her alcoholic husband and become a prosecutor in Santa Barbara, but past crimes and past loves haunt Lily and those for whom she cares. The convicted rapist is released on parole and seems to be stalking college student Shana. Shana's father, with whom she lives, is charged with a felony and threatens to reveal Lily's past. And ex-lover Richard is back, initially as legal adversary, ultimately as defense attorney. Meanwhile, troubling cases she's prosecuting challenge Lily's professional judgment. A Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection, Buried Evidence will appeal to Rosenberg's fans and perhaps expand her readership. Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


From Kirkus Reviews
Six years after she lashed out at the rapist who attacked her and her daughter, vaulting her author to the first of six bestselling suspensers (Mitigating Circumstances, 1992), Santa Barbara A.D.A. Lily Forrester is back. So is the rapist.Ordinarily, there's nothing Lily likes better than mixing it up with bad guys like Henry Middleton, the failing furniture-store mogul she's itching to indict for poisoning his developmentally challenged, well-insured daughter, 8, into a deep coma. But one bad guy she's never wanted to see again is Marco Curazon, the man who assaulted her and her daughter Shana, then 13, who helped identify him from mug shots after Lily had already shot and killed Bobby Hernandez thinking he was the perp. Now, after Lily's been living for six years with the corrosive knowledge of her fatal mistake, two new developments drag the whole stinking mess into the open again. First, her alcoholic ex John, desperate for a bone to throw the Ventura cops when he's picked up for a hit-and-run death, offers to turn her in for a get-out-of-jail-free card. Then she finds out that Marco Curazon's been paroled. It isn't bad enough that Shana, now a sophomore at UCLA sharing a place with her faithless father, still can't smell roses or sit in a dentist's chair without seeing Curazon's face hovering over hers; all too soon, it seems, she's likely to see his whole body. No wonder Lily tells Middleton attorney Richard Fowler, her once and future lover: "I'm beginning to think I have only two roles in life-victim or suspect"-a remark that could stand as an emblem for the whole lawyer-in-jeopardy genre.Rosenberg pushes all the usual buttons, but despite some sharp anti-domestic scenes and some anguished soul-searching, there's nowhere for this old case to go the second time around, and that's where it ends up going. $300,000 ad/promo; author tour -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Lily Forester, one of suspense fiction's most intriguing and unique heroines, made her debut in Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's bestselling thriller, Mitigating Circumstances. Lily was an ambitious district attorney when she and her daughter, Shana, were attacked and raped by a vicious killer. Though they escaped with their lives, Lily sought her own form of vengeance, fearing that justice would never be served. Now, six years later, Lily's cold-blooded murder of the man she thought was responsible for the attack has come back to haunt her. Not only is her deed about to be exposed, jeopardizing her career in the Santa Barbara D.A.'s office; her sense of guilt is driving her to the edge, particularly since she knows she killed the wrong man.

When Lily's deadbeat ex-husband, John, gets behind the wheel of a car after a few too many drinks, he runs down a pedestrian and then flees the scene. When he is later arrested, he decides to blackmail Lily by threatening to tell the police about the man she killed, unless she bails him out and loans him money. To make matters worse, Lily learns that the man who really did rape her and Shana has recently been paroled and seen in the area of Shana's apartment. And rumor has it he's carrying a picture of Shana around in his wallet.

The only bright spot in Lily's life is the return of Richard Fowler, a brilliant defense attorney and the man she fell in love with six years before. Richard also knows the truth about Lily, but that's little consolation when John decides to spill the beans in a moment of desperation and Lily finds herself in the hot seat in a reopened homicide investigation. Balancing her career, her love life, and her and her daughter's safety taxes Lily to the limit. Finally, things escalate to the point where Lily realizes she can no longer hide behind her lies, though she knows the truth may well destroy her and everyone she loves.

The return of Lily Forester should be welcome news to Rosenberg's old fans, and the screaming suspense of Buried Evidence should earn her a cadre of new ones. (Beth Amos)

Beth Amos is the author of several novels, including Second Sight, Eyes of Night, and Cold White Fury.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With more than 4.5 million books sold, New York Times bestselling author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg has crafted a gripping new legal thriller--as compelling as her blockbuster bestseller Mitigating Circumstances.When the accuser becomes the accused... As a dedicated district attorney, Lily Forrester presents the perfect image of a defender of justice. Only she knows the dark secret of what happened six years ago, when a desperate crisis drove her to step outside the law and exact a horrifying personal vengeance. Now her ex-husband, faced with serious criminal charges, threatens to expose her unless she compromises her most cherished beliefs to help him. A violent rapist she put behind bars is back on the streets and looking for her. Her beloved daughter seems to be the target of a dangerous madman. And Lily must call on her deepest strength to face her accusers and ensure that the values she holds most dear will triumph. In this taunt new thriller, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg displays the brilliant legal expertise and dramatic flair that have made her books classics of suspense. This long-awaited novel, filled with her trademark intriguing, complex characters and explosive storylines is a surefire recipe for success. Both dedicated fans and first-time readers will be both thrilled and satisfied. This is Nancy Taylor Rosenberg at her nail-biting best.

SYNOPSIS

As a dedicated district attorney, Lily Forrester presents the perfect image of a defender of justice. Only she knows the dark secret of what happened six years ago, when a desperate crisis drove her to step outside the law and exact a horrifying personal vengeance.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Rosenberg cannot be accused of pandering to the reader. One is never sure who to root for in her latest kinetic crime thriller, as usual set in Southern California. The protagonist of Mitigating Circumstances, feisty, red-headed Lily Forrester, formerly of the Ventura DA's office, is now DA in Santa Barbara. Her ex-husband, John Forrester, who has been living with their 18-year-old daughter, Shana, is losing his battle with the bottle and has been arrested for vehicular manslaughter. He was driving Shana's car when he hit and killed a young man--a student, like Shana, at UCLA. John blackmails Lily into bailing him out of jail, bartering Lily's secret in an effort to escape prosecution. (Six years before, Shana was brutally raped while Lily was forced to look on, and Lily shot and killed the wrong man in retaliation.) The real rapist has recently been released on parole and is once again stalking the two women. Enter Lily's former love-interest, Richard Fowler, who resurfaces in her life as the lawyer for a man Lily is prosecuting for attempting to poison his handicapped daughter. Richard ends up representing Lily (after dumping his live-in girlfriend) when the police attempt to sort out the many subplots and solve a six-year-old crime no one really cares about. Rosenberg addresses questions of conscience: the man Lily shot was himself a serial killer. Should she be prosecuted for bumping him off? Prone to hysteria, whining and selfishness, the characters presented here are barely likable. Still, the plot presents a compelling moral dilemma, the action is fast-paced and the pages turn easily. $300,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author appearances in Los Angeles and New York. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Internet Book Watch - Internet Book Watch

She is considered one of the best prosecuting attorneys assigned to the Santa Barbara District Attorney's Office. Lily Forrester firmly believes in the law and punishment for those who break it. Six years ago (see Mitigating Circumstances), Lily and her daughter were victims of a heinous crime until she took the law into her own hands. Lily has never forgiven herself for her actions, but knows she must move on to help her precious daughter enjoy a normal life. When Lily's ex-husband is arrested for vehicular homicide, her life teeters on the brink of disaster. He threatens to reveal what he thinks he knows about that crime she committed six years ago if she does not bail him out and obtain a reputable representative to defend him. To add to her confusion, the man she loves, defense attorney Richard Fowler, is back in her life demanding a future together. Even when her former spouse squeals on her to cut a deal on his charges, Richard remains by her side. It has been too long a time since Nancy Taylor Rosenberg has had a book published, but anyone who loves a terse legal thriller will know she has not lost her magic touch. Buried Evidence stars a beleaguered heroine in an action-packed story line that starts on page one and never eases on the throttle until the last page is done. Readers will never be sure they know the outcome because the subplots take the audience to and from the central theme with an ease that will leave the audience wondering how the novel will end. Her latest novel has plenty of evidence proving that Ms. Rosenberg remains one of the sub-genre's top maestros.

Kirkus Reviews

Six years after she lashed out at the rapist who attacked her and her daughter, vaulting her author to the first of six bestselling suspensers (Mitigating Circumstances, 1992), Santa Barbara A.D.A. Lily Forrester is back. So is the rapist.