Final Judgment

by Marcia Clark

Overview

A murder investigation draws firebrand attorney Samantha Brinkman into her boyfriend’s past in this novel of high-risk suspense by bestselling author Marcia Clark.

When it comes to relationships and self-preservation, defense attorney Samantha Brinkman has always been cut and run. But it’s different with her new lover, Niko, an ambitious and globally famous entrepreneur. Sam is putting her faith in him. She has to. He’s also her new client—a suspect in the murder of an investor whose shady dealings turned Niko’s good life upside down.

He had the motive: revenge. As did many others who banked a fortune on the wrong man. That’s a point in Niko’s favor. So is his alibi for the day of the slaying. Until that alibi mysteriously disappears. As Sam’s feverish search for another viable killer begins, the investigation only leads deeper into Niko’s past and its secrets.

From the darkest suspicions to final judgment, fighting for Niko is Sam’s job. To do it, she must risk everything on a man who could make all her worst fears come true.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542091152
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	04/21/2020
Series:	Samantha Brinkman Series , #4
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	396,551
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

California native Marcia Clark is the author of Blood Defense, Moral Defense, and Snap Judgment, the first three books in the Samantha Brinkman series, as well as Guilt by Association, Guilt by Degrees, Killer Ambition, and The Competition in the Rachel Knight series. A practicing criminal lawyer since 1979, she joined the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office in 1981, where she served as prosecutor for the trials of Robert Bardo—convicted of killing actress Rebecca Schaeffer—and, most notably, O. J. Simpson. The bestselling Without a Doubt, which she cowrote, chronicles her work on the Simpson trial. Clark has been a frequent commentator on a variety of shows and networks, including Today, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, and MSNBC, as well as a legal correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. For more about the author, visit www.marciaclarkbooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

The plot twists are both plausible and shocking in this intelligent page-turner. Fans of whodunits featuring ethical dilemmas will be pleased.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“With its fast-moving plot and winning characters, this fourth entry in the Brinkman series will keep readers turning pages and rooting for Sam.” —Booklist

“The book marks a welcome return for Marcia Clark, who is in fine form. Beyond the requisite questions of whodunit and why, she explores the gray areas of morality, where notions of right and wrong lie firmly in the eye of the beholder. A fiery finale to the Samantha Brinkman saga…” —Criminal Element

“The final book in the Samantha Brinkman series is a thrill ride with twists and turns.” —Red Carpet Crash

“A gripping read. Recommended.” —Long and Short Reviews

“We may not always agree with her motives, but one thing’s for sure: if you are arrested for a crime, you want Samantha Brinkman on your side.” —Woman Around Town

From the Publisher

★ 01/20/2020

In Clark’s excellent fourth thriller featuring L.A. defense attorney Samantha “Sam” Brinkman (after 2017’s Snap Judgment), Sam has found her dream man in Niko Ferrell, a funny, smart hunk who’s achieved global fame and fortune with a business empire centered on his martial arts skills. Her cynical belief that her happiness is too good to last is validated when their vacation on Bora Bora is interrupted by news that Gold Strike Enterprises, a company Niko invested in, has gone under. While the significant financial loss is one Niko can afford, the same isn’t true for others to whom he recommended the investment, including his mother, who’s wiped out and suffers a debilitating stroke from the resultant stress. That tragedy gives Niko a powerful motive for murder. When Niko and Sam discover the dead body of one of the men who ran Gold Strike, Niko becomes the prime suspect in what turns into a homicide case. Sam’s need to believe her boyfriend’s innocence is tested when she learns secrets about his past he withheld from her. The plot twists are both plausible and shocking in this intelligent page-turner. Fans of whodunits featuring ethical dilemmas will be pleased. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-01-27
A fourth case lends further support for Los Angeles defense attorney Samantha Brinkman’s sage contention that “everyone looks like a killer to me.”

Niko Ferrell, Sam’s current lover, is a world-renowned martial arts expert who could afford to drop the odd million on a bad investment. But his mother, Sophia Ferrell, is wiped out by the collapse of Gold Strike, LLC, an investment firm he’d urged her to put her life savings into. The news fells Sophia with a second stroke, and Niko goes looking for answers from his broker, Bryan Posner, and Bryan’s partner, Tanner Handel. Predictably, each of them blames the other for the catastrophic cryptocurrency investment that sent Gold Strike and everyone who invested in it spiraling downward. The more closely Niko and Sam examine the case, the more it looks like a deliberate scam. Tanner’s accusations against his partner seem to gain the edge when Bryan’s found dead in his bathtub, but his death is no suicide: He’s died of internal decapitation, a rarely occurring condition most closely associated with exactly the sort of martial arts Niko has long since mastered. Can Sam (Snap Judgment, 2017, etc.) safely assume that the man she loves is innocent? Tanner’s disappearance makes Niko’s position even more perilous, and the investigation Sam launches with Alex Medrano, her in-house private eye, bogs down in a series of conversations with defrauded investors, each of whom adds little or nothing to what they already know—until Tanner’s sometime companion Angelina Poranova provides, not new evidence, but something even hotter: a request that they look into the abduction and rape of her kid sister, Eliza, as she left one of Angelina’s world-class parties. This mystery adds some much-needed oomph to the flagging Gold Strike inquiries, especially once it entangles another man with close ties to Sam, and Clark succeeds in knitting the two cases together in a compelling though morally questionable way. The closing pages find the franchise heroine waiting with bated breath to learn whether she’s been successful in compounding a felony.

Vigilante justice runs rings around the system the heroine allegedly represents.

Kirkus Reviews