Review of THE ALIBI MAN by Tami Hoag

Bantam, March 2007

Elena Estes was once a daughter of privilege, but she turned her back on all that when her wealthy attorney father expected her to sell her soul to protect a rich client. She became a cop, and when that went badly wrong she got a job exercising high-strung horses, on the fringes of Palm Beach high society but no longer part of it.

When her friend and coworker, Irina Markova, is murdered and thrown in a canal to be chewed on by alligators, and Elena finds her body, she is thrust back into the world she turned her back on. All clues lead to a group of rich men whose lives revolve around women, drugs and polo--men with a stomach-turning sense of entitlement and an annoying habit of protecting each other. Included in that group is Bennett Walker, Elena's former fiance for whom she once provided an alibi.

Though Elena no longer wears a badge, she considers it her personal mission to find Irina's killer and bring him to justice--even if that means pissing off a scary Russian mob figure and stepping on the toes of the cop she recently broke up with, James Landry.

ALIBI MAN is a fabulous read, even if I did guess the murderer pretty early on. Maybe I was just lucky. Elena is a wonderfully flawed and wounded heroine, and though we don't see her and Landry together very much, the biplay between them was interesting and complex and made me want to know more. Be warned this book is gritty and violent, not for the squeamish.

See more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Tami Hoag.

Four Stars

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