book review: Killer Ambition by Marcia Clark

-
The backstory: Killer Ambition is the third mystery in Marcia Clark's Rachel Knight series. I've already enjoyed and reviewed Guilt by Association and Guilt by Degrees.

 The basics: When a famous Hollywood director's daughter is murdered, in what seems to be a kidnapping gone wrong, D.A. Rachel Knight and her best friend, detective Bailey Keller, catch the case and the spotlight. Of course, things are never quite what they seem in a Marcia Clark novel, and the actual mystery is much more complicated than a simple whodunit.

 My thoughts: After starting this series in December (the week I found out I was pregnant and only wanted to lose myself in mysteries), I read all three books back-to-back-to-back in a single week. I've spaced out my reviews so as not to delude you all at once, but I am so in love with this series and these characters. Overall, this mystery wasn't quite as compelling as the one in Guilt by Degrees, but I enjoyed reading it just as much. The trio of Rachel, Bailey, and fellow DA Toni is a beautifully realistic friendship, and I enjoyed their quiet moments of normalcy in this novel as much as I enjoyed the twisty mystery.

This novel, and the mystery at its core, are both quintessential Hollywood. Clark takes us behind the glamour and celebrity in a fascinating way. I most appreciated that although these Hollywood archetypes were easily recognizable, they didn't strike me as thin facades for actual people as much as familiar composites. As much as I love characters based on real famous people, it easily could have detracted from the mystery.

 Favorite passage:  "I had no particular reason to think Mackenzie would lie to us. But my experience with teenagers has taught me that they invariably keep secrets from the adult world and they consider it an honor to guard those secrets closely. I don’t think it’s nefarious, I think it’s just tribal loyalty."

 The verdict: The payoff in Killer Ambition wasn't as shocking as Guilt by Degrees, but the journey was just as twisty and fascinating. Clark manages to continue to develop the core characters and their relationship with one another while also telling a dynamic mystery. The Competition, the fourth Rachel Knight mystery, comes out July 8, which is too far away for my liking.

 Rating: 4 out of 5
Length: 464 pages
Publication date: June 18, 2013
Source: purchased

 Convinced? Treat yourself! Buy Killer Ambition from an independent bookstore, the Book Depository or Amazon (Kindle edition.)

Want more? Visit Marcia Clark's website, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

Comments

  1. audreygeddesJanuary 31, 2014 at 2:40 PM

    Killer Ambition sounds intriguing, and I'll be checking out the author's whole series. This is right up my alley. Thank you for such an excellent review! You might also enjoy a great book I just finished by Eliot Hartford Bailey called, Chasing A Miracle. It has a little bit of everything – Action, adventure, conspiracy, religion, drama, love, government, travel, sci-fi. I can see this one being made into a movie one day! You can find the author's website here: http://eliothbailey.com/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the fir
Read more