Ties That Bind - Couverture souple

On the outside, Amanda Jaffe has healed from the traumatic events that concluded the sensational New York Times bestseller Wild Justice -- but inside, she's struggling to regain her self-assurance. When she is forced to represent a pimp accused of murder (a case no other lawyer will touch), her client threatens her, strirring up the trauma to such an extent that she must finally seek the help of a psychiatrist. Her opponent on the murder case, ADA Tom McCorkle, is a local hero -- he won the Heisman Trophy and secured for University Oregon its only victory in the Rose Bowl 15 years earlier -- who is embroiled in his own crisis of confidence, because his popularity is based on a lie. When two people involved in Amanda's case also wind up murdered, Amanda's investigation reveals strange links between a powerful group of men and a drug-related bloodbath many years before. They're called "The Courthouse Athletic Club" -- but who are they? -- why are they interested in a small-time pimp? -- and is it possible that their power and influence reaches all the way to the Presidency?

To prosecutor Tim Kerrigan, the case of John Dupre appears open and shut. Not only is Dupre - infamous for his drug dealing and call-girl business - accused of murdering a prostitute and the son of a powerful businessman, but he has killed his lawyer in full view of a courthouse guard. For Kerrigan, this case could be his stepping stone to a position in Congress, but only if he helps sentence Dupre to the death penalty.

Even to Dupre's new defence attorney, Amanda Jaffe, the result of this case seems clearly drawn. But when certain clues start popping up, from knife wounds on Dupre's own hands to hints dropped by friends of the murdered call girl, Jaffe begins to suspect there may be other people involved. As more evidence piles up and even her own safety is threatened, Jaffe begins to realise that Dupre may not be the criminal he seemed and that the real culprit could lie within the plush, protected walls of the State's most prominent country club.