coolreads# The Accomplice @definitelybooks

The Accomplice
Author: Steve Cavanagh
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 9781409198741

The book opens with FBI agent Paige Delaney together with a SWAT team approaching a brick colonial-style house in upscale Old Westbury in New York State. They are there on an urgent mission. For 14 months and 12 days, a serial killer who calls himself The Sandman has murdered 17 victims. Now they are at his home to make the arrest.

But unfortunately, The Sandman aka Daniel Miller, isn’t home. Instead, his wife Carrie is there alone, but she professes no knowledge of what her husband has been up to. Delaney is moved by the obviously shaken woman’s innocence, until the search team finds something that makes the agent see Carrie from another perspective and to immediately arrest her.

Soon, Carrie Miller is the most hated woman in America, and in the absence of her killer husband, all eyes are trained on her upcoming trial as an accomplice to his crimes.

That’s when former conman and legal genius Eddie Flynn enters the scene. Carrie has engaged a high profile lawyer to represent her but Otto Peltier specialises in tax and other financial matters for his mega-rich clients. He realises that he is out of his depth here and turns to Eddie and his team for help.

After being coerced by his team of Harry, Kate, Bloch and even the office secretary Denise, Eddie  agrees to meet Carrie to hear her out. When he is convinced she is innocent, he agrees to represent her. Eventually, this disparate bunch bonds like family and makes truly formidable opponents. They soon realise they are going to need each other as the story progresses. Especially when they face one challenge after another as the trial draws near. Will Eddie and his team manage to pull it off? Can he convince the jaded jury and the rest of the world that Carrie has no knowledge of her husband’s crimes and is not part of his murders.

As Eddie prepares for the case, he is faced with a new problem - The Sandman has returned to New York and he is determined to save his wife from a life sentence. Even with the police, FBI and rogue serial killer specialist Gabriel Lake on his tail, The Sandman begins a new reign of terror, this time targeting the prosecution’s witnesses and members of the FBI, leaving a trail of corpses without their eyes and the eye sockets are filled with sand instead, which is his trademark.

Steve Cavanagh offers us some fantastic court scenes with the legal cut, thrust and unexpected twists he is known for. He also throws other elements into the mix and with Carrie’s husband still on the loose and out for blood, the readers are treated to some scary and exciting moments.

New York city throbs with tension as the shadows deepen and the residents begin to see The Sandman in every dark corner. Cavanagh hit it off again, providing readers with a brilliant and intense thriller that is dark and exciting at the same time. He also throws in unexpected twists and developments, all the while ratcheting up the suspense till the end.

The book is also filled with some excellent sequences depicting the killer’s current brutal actions, the desperate search for him that envelops several main characters, and Eddie’s impressive legal scenes.

The scenes that focus on The Sandman are particularly dark and gripping, especially when the readers get to see directly into his twisted mind, and the use of them throughout the book really helps to amp up the drama and threat while also moving the narrative along in some impressive directions.

Likewise, the readers are also treated to some intriguing and powerful character driven scenes from some of the other major characters, such as Eddie’s investigator Bloch and newcomer Gabriel, as they are obsessed with finding The Sandman and bringing him to justice. This includes Eddie’s mentor and advisor, Harry Ford, who continues to be a solid and calming presence for the team.

Combining fantastic legal elements with a gripping psychological narrative about a dangerous killer, The Accomplice is another exciting read from Cavanagh that is well worth the wait.

All the perspectives come together towards the end of the book, and The Accomplice finally has a closure for the finale, except for one minor glitch in the scale of justice.