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Feminist Mystery Reviews HARD BARGAIN Reviewed by Harriet Klausner Chicago police officer Shelley Daniello and her partner Bradford Hubner respond to a domestic violence call. Shelley gets to the scene ahead of Bradford and sees a fellow officer Ben Jurack swinging a knife towards his wife, Marie, who happens to be Shelley's sister. Shelley swears she gave Ben a warning which he ignored. She fired and killed Ben. Her partner arrives on the scene after the killing. The press has a field day because of the incident. They go so far as to inconsistently accuse the Chief of Detectives Harold McCoo of either a cover-up or unfair treatment of a woman. Leaks from the department itself is making it easier on the media to prosecute Shelley and Harold. The police brass decide that Shelley and Harold are the perfect fall guys to be fed to the hungry media's feeding frenzy. However, free lance reporter Cat Marsala knows her friend Harold too well to believe that he would obstruct the truth. She decides to help him by investigating the incident and more important, the aftermath. As Cat gets closer to the truth, the brass purposely removes Harold from the case to make it seem to the public as if he has done something sinister. This adds even more pressure to Cat to solve the reasons behind the department's handling of the aftermath before her friend finds his career over. The Cat Marsala series is the best tour of Chicago since Ferris took a day off. Cat is a great character who, in HARD BARGAIN, proves her loyalty and belief in her friend by her willingness to take risks to help him out of a nasty fix. The story line of the top management of the police department willing to do anything to shift the blame is well designed, turning the tale into an intriguing police procedural. With this novel, Barbara D'Amato demonstrates why she is an award winning author.
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