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Summary
Summary
Another compelling thriller by the bestselling author of Trial by Fire. After joining the police force in her small California hometown, Rachel Simmons witnesses a shocking abuse of police authority and trust. Compelled to report it, Rachel soon finds herself fighting for herself and her loved ones against a host of enemies who value loyalty more than honor.
Author Notes
Crime novelist Nancy Taylor Rosenberg held a variety of jobs, ranging from model to probation officer.
Her strong female lead characters and first-hand knowledge of police prodecures have made her works very popular.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In her fifth crime thriller, Rosenberg (Trial by Fire) discards her bestselling formula of vigilantism triumphant, and the result isn't pretty. Many sad and terrible things happen to policewoman Rachel Simmons. Rachel, we soon learn, was kidnapped and abused as a child. Her husband died of cancer, leaving her with crippling debts and two children. Her job on the police department of the (fictional) city of Oak Grove in California's Ventura County is very stressful and about to become unbearable, and her second job, as a security guard, leaves her little time for sleep or family. Add to that a crew of fellow night-shift cops that includes a brutal rapist, a burnout with a severe eating disorder, an illegal Pakistani immigrant desperately masquerading as an Italian and a sergeant whose rampant sexism is the least of his failings, and the scenario goes from grim to grimmer. When one of her colleagues causes a teenage boy's death by using him as a shield, Rachel blows the whistle. In response, the other cops descend from nastiness into visciousness. One of them beats and sexually assaults her, then threatens to do the same to her teenage daughter. Rachel's home is bugged, and she's accused of stealing drug money. Rachel fights back, as all Rosenberg heroines do, but her fate, despite being played out suspensefully and with brisk pacing, may leave readers feeling even more manipulated than they bargained for. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild selection; simultaneous Penguin audio. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The heroine sports a police uniform instead of a lawyer's suit, but everything else is mayhem as usual in Rosenberg's latest dip into female legal paranoia (Trial by Fire, 1996; California Angel, 1995, etc.). Oak Grove is nothing like neighboring L.A., if only because the police department is squeaky clean. But Rachel Simmons, who all but saw fellow officer Jimmy Townsend plant a handgun on a drunk driver with bad attitude, wonders if the reason for the department's sterling reputation is that everybody's covering for everybody else. Well, Rachel, who's idolized cops ever since one of them rescued her from a molester 25 years ago, isn't one to cover up anything. When a beach party ends with preening Officer Grant Cummings groping her, she threatens to file a complaint against him. And when a teen gang fight ends in a fatal shooting Cummings could have prevented, she won't keep quiet, even though all the other officers present back up Cummings, leaving her the only one holding hands (and more) with prosecutor Michael Atwater. Retaliation follows when a routine late-night call turns into a fatal encounter, Rachel's backup units innocently fail to respond, and she swears out complaints against virtually the entire squad, who naturally close ranks even more tightly. The territory is familiar enough; Rosenberg's contribution is to present Rachel's adversary not as a faceless bureaucracy but as an extended family, puzzled and hurt by her defection, even as they're pushing her toward a financial disaster that would break up her family (her bright, willful daughter Tracy's already plotting just how big a price she'll have to pay to bail mom out), drive her from her home and job, and destroy her life. Written without the slightest subtlety or complexity, but at a barn-burning pace that practically guarantees big sales for an audience whose own problems will be dwarfed by Rachel's. (First printing of 200,000; Literary Guild selection)
Booklist Review
Never one to shy away from controversy, the best-selling Rosenberg's sixth novel takes on a knotty one: rogue cops and the code of silence that permits a few bad actors to intimidate other officers and abuse citizens. After two years with the force in the L.A. suburb of Oak Grove, Rachel Simmons, a widow with a teenage daughter and a toddler son, has much to learn. Moonlighting as a security guard to pay off medical bills from her husband's long illness, she hasn't really bonded with her graveyard-shift colleagues. When Rachel declines to go along with the official lie about a Mob-related incident in which a high-school athlete died, she's fair game: threats to her family, violence, wiretapping, and a cold shoulder that leaves her alone with a corpse, a speed freak, and $50,000 in drug money. Although at times tempted to back off or even join in the corruption, Rachel has a core of integrity that keeps her on the high (but not the safe) road. A handsome assistant DA provides legal insights and romantic interest here, but Abuse of Power is closer to a police procedural (or anti-procedural) than a legal thriller. Despite shortcuts and stereotypes, it convincingly demonstrates why a bad cop is even more dangerous than a bad perp. A Literary Guild selection. --Mary Carroll
Library Journal Review
An idealistic young female cop tattles after witnessing a terrible abuse of police power only to find her life threatened by those who would rather bury the incident. From the author of best sellers like Trial by Fire, out in paperback and featuring a teaser chapter from the new book. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.