Saturday, July 9, 2011

Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot-Jodi Compton

Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot
Jodi Compton
Crown, Jul 19 2011, $23.00
ISBN: 9780307588081

Hailey Cain was two months shy of graduating West Point when the army gave her a medical discharge due to a deadly brain tumor. She returned to California only to lose a finger when she took on a mobster in Hailey’s War. Her irate cousin Grammy award winner CJ Mooney tells her not to come back to his place as he cannot cope with her life risking adventures.

Instead Hailey hooks up with Serena "Warchild" Delgadillo, the leader of a kick butt Latina female gang in Los Angeles. Warchild calls Cain informing her she is wanted for a double murder including a cop in San Francisco. Cain is stunned as she is four hundred miles to the south so could not have committed the homicides. As Cain begins her efforts to expedite herself from her troubles, she encounters gang-intelligence cop Magnus Ford who offers her a chance for moral redemption.

The second Cain thriller is a profound look at female gangs who in many cases make the other gender look weak. Cain is a terrific lead who keeps the exciting insightful story line focused as her moral compass feels off since she joined her schoolmate’s gang. On top of her lethal illness, the anti-heroine learns personal values and ethics and a stolen identity are difficult hills to climb.

Harriet Klausner

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