EPUB ✓ MOBI Certain Prey î 9780743484190

EBOOK Certain Prey

EPUB ✓ MOBI Certain Prey î 9780743484190 å Attorney Carmel Loan is beautiful intelligent ambitious and used to getting what she wants When she becomes infatuated with fellow barrister Hale Allen she isn't going to let a little thing like his being married get in the way So through the contacts of an ex client she hired profeThe shooting of a witness a cop brings DI Lucas Davenport into the case Carmel Loan and Clara Rinker team up to clean up the loose ends which includes getting Davenport off their backs by whatever means necessa They talked for a long time nihilism and religion guns and ammo and that night very late as Carmel was dozing off she smiled sleepily as she replayed the conversation She'd gone to college with a lot of finance and law students They'd stayed up nights studying not talkingThis night she thought was like what a lot of people did in college a few beers with friends talk about God and death Carmel Loan is a sharp and completely unscrupulous defense attorney She's ruthless devious and sexy; whatever Carmel wants Carmel gets And what Carmel wants as Certain Prey opens is Hale Allen a man of startlingly good looks and the intellect of a golden retriever There's only one problem Hale is married and his wife's incredible wealth makes divorce a less than appealing prospect What's a girl in love to do except use one of her client's connections to hire a discreet hitman to eliminate the inconvenient wifeOnly the hitman in this case is a woman Clara Rinker a character so entirely charming down to earth professional funny and endearing that she steals the book Sure she's killed many many people but who doesn't have flaws She may be a pro but she's neither as coldblooded as Carmel nor as cruel; killing is just something she does well and make a good low key living by Whatever moral ualms she has about her business she assuages them by believing in fate and telling herself that most of the people she kills are far from innocent They're Mafia connected hangers on after allBarbara Allen is an exception and by Clara's own standards maybe that's what swings fate in the form of Lucas Davenport to target her and Carmel Because while the hit on Barbara is a relatively neat uickly done task the job itself won't stay dead The client of Carmel's who connected her with Rinker turns around immediately and tries to blackmail her and that's just the beginning of the complications that ensue There's no solution that doesn't create a separate problem And once Lucas learns though dubious inadmissible means that Carmel is definitely involved the pressure builds even because now he's not going to be shaken off the scent And no matter how well Clara Rinker has hidden Lucas might be the one person capable of finding herRinker like I said steals the book and her odd budding friendship with Carmel makes for a bizarre funny and strangely touching centerpiece at least from Rinker's side of things Her life is by necessity disconnected from long term connections and emotional honesty and in Carmel she belatedly finds the camaraderie and girl talk that she's spent her whole life without And Carmel feels the same way it's friendship at first sight and as the bodies pile up around them these two are planning vacations to Mexico and talking about renting movies for when they have to lay lowBut nothing is that simple not when they're mired in complications and not when Lucas is on their tail and Sandford keeps the reader's sympathies complicated by driving home repeatedly that Carmel at least is an out and out psychopath She doesn't have Rinker's tragic backstory or minor scruples She does have an electric drill that she's willing to use to torture a guy If the Mexico vacation doesn't work out she might be able to find a time share with the men from Hostel And if Carmel brings the sadism Rinker brings the efficiency The two of them make a pretty intimidating and frightening teamThis one is all about the antagonists for me I loved all the behind the scenes looks at Rinker's career from the routine wiping down of hotel room faucets to the safety deposit box full of IDs to the little lies you tell to buy a wig without the store owner remembering you and I loved the unnerving glimpses of the vacuous darkness beneath Carmel's pretty facade Lucas's best scenes in the book are with the two of them his little face offs with Carmel even the early amiable ones are magnetic and when Sandford somewhat stacks the deck to give Lucas a way to dance with Rinker it's an improbable but entrancing moment that I could visualize perfectly Never mind his flirtation with an FBI agent he and Rinker and Carmel have the real sizzling chemistry