Mission Hill - Pamela Wechsler

Mission Hill by Pamela Wechsler


First Paragraph:

I'm in bed, silently reciting their names.  Number one, Lester Beale, stabbed his girlfriend twenty-six times.  Number two, Jeffrey Younts, shot a fifteen-year-old boy as he stepped off the school bus.  Number three, Omar Monteiro, gunned down twin brothers on their thirtieth birthday.  This is my nighttime ritual.  I count killers, the people I've prosecuted for murder.


My Thoughts:

Mission Hill is a debut novel by Pamela Wechsler, a former prosecutor who has also worked on TV shows like Law & Order. The main protagonist, Abby Endicott, is a homicide prosecutor with the Boston District Attorney's office. Abby is tough and hard driven, choosing to go up against the most ruthless killers, despite having come from a privileged background. I'm a fan of shows like Law & Order and the reader can see the influence in the story line, so this tale worked well for me. I was caught up in who did what and when. There were a few minor quibbles, especially when Abby made decisions that put herself or others in major jeopardy or turned down offers of help. I'll grant her a pass this time, but will be less forgiving in the next book. And, yes, there is already a next book in the series. I look forward to reading it very soon. All in all, a worthy legal thriller.


Blurb:

Abby Endicott is chief of the District Attorney’s homicide unit in Boston, where she investigates and prosecutes the city’s most dangerous killers. A member of Mission Hill’s elite, and a graduate of the Winsor school and then Harvard Law, the prosecutor’s office is not the prestigious job that would have been expected of her. She has been known to change into an evening gown amidst bodies in the morgue. She loves her job, and is committed to it, refusing all pressure to quit from her upper-crust parents or threats from the city’s most ruthless killers. But among Abby’s many secrets is her longtime affair with fellow prosecutor Tim Mooney, a married father of one.

One night, Abby is awakened very late by a phone call from her favorite detective, who reports that there has been a horrific murder but is vague about the specifics. When she arrives at the crime scene and discovers the identity of the victim, Abby knows the terror and tragedy are only beginning.