Samantha Brinkman is the kick-ass hero criminal lawyer you've been missing in your life, unless of course you've already discovered how amazing Marcia Clark's protagonist is through her first two books, Blood Defense and Moral Defense. The third novel in the series, Snap Judgment, shows that she just keeps getting better and better at this.
Alicia Hutchins is a fairly average college kid. Maybe a little smarter, maybe a little more in need of letting off steam after surviving a very full schedule of high school classes, sports, and extracurricular activities controlled by her helicopter parents. But she was handling it pretty well. She was working hard in her first semester of classes, wasn't going too wild, and found herself a boyfriend. But the boyfriend got a little demanding of her time, and after she asked for a little space, she found out that not only were her naked selfies posted to a porn site, the post included her home address and asked for help fulfilling her rape fantasies. Sadly, she was found later, killed in her apartment.
It's her boyfriend, Roan Sutton, who is accused of posting her selfies to the internet and possibly killing her himself. But he commits suicide before he can be questioned by the police. Or did he? Samantha's longtime friend and rival, fellow attorney and father of Alicia, Graham Hutchins is accused of killing Sutton himself, and it's up to Sam and her colleagues to figure out what happened to Alicia and Roan while trying to keep Graham out of the limelight and protecting herself from her other, less respected clients. It's a delicate juggling act, but you know Sam is on it. And with the help of her investigator and former(ish) computer hacker Alex, her best friend and office manager Michy, and her homicide detective father Dale, Sam just might be able to scrape by again, finding the killer (killers?) and bringing the justice.
If you only know of Marcia Clark as the former prosecutor from the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the one who tried O.J. Simpson among others, then you know she has the legal chops to create a realistic picture of criminal law. But if you've been paying attention to more of her work, you'll know that she wrote Without a Doubt about her experience with that trial and also another series of novels, The Rachel Knight series. She is an accomplished author, and her experiences in the D.A.'s office as well as all her experience with the media greatly informs her novels and bring a sense of realism to Samantha's world. So if you care about Clark's past or not, there is no denying her ability with a story. Snap Judgment is a fantastic legal thriller, and Samantha Brinkman is as smart as you can get.
Galleys for Snap Judgment were provided by Thomas & Mercer through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.