The latest from Lisa Black featuring forensic specialist Theresa MacLean, Defensive Wounds starts with a brutal murder and goes from there. Theresa's a good character, as is her daughter Rachael, and the supporting cast which includes her overly protective cousin Frank. The murders are intriguing, and Black doesn't flinch when it comes to killing off even characters we've grown fond of. One thing about Theresa, she does seem to have a doomed love life--which brings to mind a big question mark for me as a reader of the previous books ... what happened to Chris Cavanaugh?? I really liked him and he just disappeared without explanation. Anyway, Defensive Wounds is largely a forensic/police procedural, with a tiny bit of romance thrown in, and some mom/daughter conflict (which conflict, by the way, isn't Theresa's finest hour.) Teresa is a forensic expert who works with the police--she gets invovled in investigating a 2 lawyer murder case, where both lawyers are associated with a case where a boy who woke up next to a dead girl was acquitted, and someone is hell bent on revenge--why so many years later is never really well dealt with, but there you have it. It is a reasonably written story that holds together as well as most of these do.
