Baldacci is either taking a break from his best-selling Sean King-Michelle Maxwell and Camel Club series to write a stand-alone thriller or testing the waters for another new series. Washington, D.C., cop Mace Perry served two years in jail after the drug dealers she was investigating turned the tables, drugging her and making her participate in armed robberies. Now, tagging along at a murder scene with her sister, Beth, the chief of police, Mace decides to earn her way back onto the force by solving the crime. Attorney Roy Kingman, the man who found the corpse, becomes her unlikely partner. Unfortunately, the deceased knew something for which an intelligence agency was willing to kill to protect and now Mace and Roy are in the crosshairs, too. Baldacci has proven his ability to write well-paced thrillers that combine crime and politics in locations ranging from mean streets to opulent mansions. The diminutive yet die-hard Mace, however, is so hard-charging as to be hard to like, and a subplot about a rich guy who hires her to recruit poor people for a life-changing internship feels gratuitous. Our credulity is tested, too: Would a police chief visit so many crime scenes? Would a bad guy play basketball to decide the heroes' fate? Readers' enjoyment may hinge on their desire for last-minute rescues and neatly tied endings, where the snarling villain is vanquished in public.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2009 Booklist

This promising first in a new series from bestseller Baldacci (First Family) introduces Beth Perry, chief of the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police, and Beth's younger sister, Mace Perry, a former police officer dubbed "the Patty Hearst of the twenty-first century" after she was seized by bandits, drugged and taken along on a series of armed robberies around Washington. Mace, who's just getting out of prison after serving a two-year sentence, is willing to risk everything to clear her name and reclaim her life as a cop by cracking a big case on her own. The rape-murder of a powerful lawyer as well as the killing of a prominent U.S. attorney provide Mace an opportunity to vindicate herself. While Baldacci draws his characters in bright primary colors, and some of the action reaches comic book proportions, he delivers his usual intricate plotting and sets the stage nicely for highly competent Beth and impulsive, streetwise Mace to take on more bad guys. (Oct. 27) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Only true cops bleed blue. Baldacci's latest (after First Family) begins with ex-D.C. cop Mace Perry being released from jail after serving two years for a crime she did not knowingly commit. When her police chief sister unwillingly takes Mace to the crime scene of a dead lawyer found stuffed in a refrigerator, Mace begins to plot a path to reclaiming her job and reputation. Mace and her unofficial partner, lawyer Roy Kingman, track down clues, but the killers always seem to be one step ahead. As the duo close in on the mastermind behind this murder, they may end up as the next victims. Verdict Fans of Baldacci's Camel Club series will relish this novel-and especially its rebel-with-a-cause heroine. Highly recommended for readers who love fast-paced thrillers and rooting for an underdog. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/09.]-Susan O. Moritz, Montgomery Cty. P.L.s, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.