Primary Justice

by William Bernhardt • 1991

A lawyer investigates the murder of an aspiring adoptive father: “A climax that will take most readers by surprise” (Chicago Tribune). It’s Ben Kincaid’s first day as an associate at corporate giant Raven, Tucker & Tubb, and he’s ready to start the long climb up the ladder to partnership. But he’s barely cleared the first rung when a body trips him up. Ben’s first task is to arrange an adoption for one of the firm’s biggest clients—a bit of grunt work that becomes interesting when he meets the child in question. Emily suffers from Korsakov’s Syndrome, a rare disorder that prevents her from forming memories, and Jonathan and Bertha Adams want nothing more than to raise her as their own. But Kincaid has just begun getting the paperwork together when he gets a chilling phone call: Jonathan has been found dead, hacked to pieces in an alleyway. Investigating the killing will take Kincaid down a fearsome path, leading him to wish that, like Emily, he had the power to forget.