Clever Fox

May 13, 2013
Pirro’s wickedly good sequel to 2012’s Sly Fox, which introduced feisty A.D.A. Dani Fox, highlights the political jockeying and rampant sexism of the Westchester County, N.Y., police department in 1980. When the tortured and mutilated body of Isabella Ricci is found in an uninhabited apartment, the case appears open and shut to Fox and her wisecracking but supportive partner, Det. Tommy O’Brien. Ricci was the daughter of a major Mafia family, and a senior member of a rival family was identified entering and leaving the apartment at the time of her death. But what about Ricci’s bitterly estranged husband? And who is the young man who was so relentlessly and aggressively stalking Ricci? Fox must also cope with bitter departmental rivalries and with total hostility between the local police and the FBI. An adroit plot, memorable characters, and some romantic twists make for satisfying reading. Agent: David Vigliano, Vigliano Associates.

June 1, 2013
The only female Assistant District Attorney in a men's world may be getting set up as a scapegoat. New Year's Eve 1979. Dani Fox is in New York City with her boyfriend, reporter Will Harris, when she's called to examine the badly mutilated body of a young woman in Westchester County. The superintendent of the building identifies the victim as Vicky and reports that she meets someone who arrives in a limo several times a week and was last visited by someone with a scar on his face. The apartment was rented by the law firm of Gallo & Conti, whose only client is the facially scarred Mafia boss Nicholas Persico, aka The Butcher. Dani's politically savvy boss gives her the case, much to the dismay of a colleague who specializes in the mob but is way too friendly with obnoxious FBI agent Jack Langhorn. Working with Langhorn is charming, ambitious agent Walter Coyle, whose team has been following Persico. Coyle identifies Persico as the man who spent several hours with Vicky, who turns out to have been the daughter of a New Jersey boss whose mob family has been locking horns with Persico over the lucrative refuse business. Everyone is eager to arrest Persico for the murder, but Dani has a gut feeling that he's not the killer. Meantime, Dani's affair with Will is roiled by conflicts involving his reporting on the sensitive case and his jealousy over Coyle, who's romantically pursuing Dani. It will take help from the FBI profiler unit to solve a case in which only her pal Detective O'Brien has Dani's back. The latest from Pirro (Sly Fox, 2012, etc.), a judge and analyst with her own show on the Fox News Channel, showcases her knowledge. The writing may be slightly dry, but she provides lots of local color and insider dope.

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June 1, 2013
This sequel to Sly Fox (2012) finds prosecutor Dani Fox summoned to work on New Year's Eve 1979. The only woman in the Westchester County district attorney's office, she heads up the newly formed Domestic Violence Unit and fights the entrenched old-boy network on a daily basis. A New Jersey Mafia don's daughter is found tortured and murdered, and Fox and her journalist boyfriend, Will, rush to the crime scene, in Yonkers. As Fox and her investigating officer start digging, they find that the dead woman had been having an affair with her father's most hated enemy, head of another crime family. The FBI has an eyewitness agent who can place the don at the scene of the crime, and political pressure becomes unbearable as Fox's boss demands immediate justice. She isn't comfortable with charging a man based on circumstantial evidence, and as witnesses start disappearing, the pressure really heats up. Pirro joins the ranks of fellow prosecutors Linda Fairstein and Marcia Clark in turning out tautly written legal thrillers, and Pirro's expertise shines on every page.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)