Rachel Knight Series - Marcia Clark

Written by Marcia Clark
Read by January LaVoy
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

2011-2014, Her first novels for which she received high praise.

by January LaVoy
Marcia Clark

Guilt by Association
Series: Rachel Knight : Book 01
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Release date: April 20, 2011
Duration: 09:49:04

Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is a tenacious, wise-cracking, and fiercely intelligent prosecutor in the city’s most elite division. When her colleague, Jake, is found dead at a grisly crime scene, Rachel is shaken to the core. She must take over his toughest case: the assault of a young woman from a prominent family.

But she can’t stop herself from digging deeper into Jake’s death, a decision that exposes a world of power and violence and will have her risking her reputation — and her life — to find the truth.

“January LaVoy’s firm, fast-paced delivery is the perfect vehicle for this mystery. LaVoy’s portrayals of each of the characters, especially the “homies” from the Mexican “hood,” are spot-on and add to the twists and snappy one-liners. An enjoyable and entertaining listen. A.C.P. (c) AudioFile

If I’m Dead (short story)
Series: Rachel Knight : Book 1.6
Length: 1 hr and 31 mins

It started with a haunting image: a Ford Explorer, iridescent in the moonlight and alone on a desolate stretch of beach. Its owner, Melissa Gibbons, has gone missing. Her husband says she flew the coop. But Los Angeles Deputy DA Rachel Knight is convinced otherwise: Melissa Gibbons has been murdered.

So begins the confounding case that Rachel must present before a disbelieving jury. A dissatisfied heiress and her philandering husband - what really happened? The husband has a fiendishly convincing case that Melissa faked her own death and fled. But with the support of her trusty sidekick, Detective Bailey Keller, Rachel pieces together a much more sinister truth.

Guilt by Degrees
Series: Rachel Knight : Book 02
Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
Release date: 05-08-12

Someone has been watching D.A. Rachel Knight — someone who’s Rachel’s equal in brains, but with more malicious intentions. It began when a near-impossible case fell into Rachel’s lap, the suspectless homicide of a homeless man. In the face of courthouse backbiting and a gauzy web of clues, Rachel is determined to deliver justice. She’s got back-up: tough-as-nails Detective Bailey Keller.

As Rachel and Bailey stir things up, they’re shocked to uncover a connection with the vicious murder of an LAPD cop a year earlier. Something tells Rachel someone knows the truth, someone who’d kill to keep it secret.

As the convoluted story unfolds, the significance of the gory prologue, in which someone takes an axe to a guy named Zack in his basement workshop, gradually becomes clear. Clark humanizes her tough lead, and gets the mixture of action and investigative legwork just right,.

“January LaVoy turns in an energized, standout performance. Knight’s insouciant attitude hides the fact that she’s playing for keeps, and LaVoy perfectly captures this. Totally in tune with Clark’s zingy prose, LaVoy seems to be channeling Knight. And listeners will feel as if they’re sitting down with the tenacious DA as she recalls all the things—some weird (it’s L.A., she keeps reminding us), some thrilling, some happy, some sad—that happened during her most recent case. Like any good conversationalist, LaVoy’s version of Knight makes delightful company.

Trouble in Paradise (short Story)
Series: Rachel Knight : Book 2.5
Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
Release date: 05-07-13

DA Rachel Knight and her besties take a Caribbean vacation and end up solving a crime.

With her besties Bailey and Toni in tow, Rachel leaves work and rainy LA behind and sets off for a much-needed vacation in Aruba. Greeted by glittering sand and a balmy breeze, the three friends can’t imagine anywhere more perfect.

But just minutes after hitting the beach, they’re approached by a panicked young woman. A gofer on the biggest reality hit since “Survivor,” she’s lost the show’s child star and must find her, now, before anyone else realizes she’s gone. Rachel, Bailey, and Toni put their dreams of paradise on hold and embark on a whirlwind search for the girl — a search that ends with a twist so disturbing no one, not even a fortune-teller, could have seen it coming . . .

Killer Ambition
Series: Rachel Knight : Book 03
· Length: 15 hrs
· Release date: 06-18-13

When the daughter of a billionaire Hollywood director is found murdered after what appears to be a kidnapping gone wrong, Los Angeles Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight and Detective Bailey Keller find them at the epicenter of a combustible and high profile court case.

Then a prime suspect is revealed to be one of Hollywood’s most popular and powerful talent managers — and best friend to the victim’s father. With the director vouching for the manager’s innocence, the Hollywood media machine commences an all-out war designed to discredit both Rachel and her case. Killer Ambition is at once a thrilling ride through the darker side of Tinseltown and a stunning courtroom drama with the brilliant insider’s perspective that Marcia Clark is uniquely qualified to give

Boasting a feisty protagonist, a winning supporting cast, and steadily escalating courtroom drama, Killer Ambition finds Clark at the top of her game. Legal thrillers don’t get much better than this.

“Narrator January LaVoy smoothly conveys the author’s lighthearted cynicism. She ably captures Knight, and for Keller, LaVoy lowers her voice, adding a flat, careful, dogmatic pronunciation that both relaxes and quickens during her snappy discussions with Knight. As for the bookies male characters, LaVoy opts for a minimal, vaguely masculine tone, with one exception. Clark describes the arrogant, angry filmmaker as short with a voice high enough for him to be mistaken for a female. LaVoy adds her own amusing touch by giving him the sound and the bark of a human Chihuahua.”

The Competition
Series: Rachel Knight: Book 4
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Release date: July 8, 2014
Duration: 13:17:27

A Columbine-style shooting at a high school in the San Fernando Valley has left a community shaken to its core. Two students are identified as the killers. Both are dead, believed to have committed a mutual suicide.

In the aftermath of the shooting, LA Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight teams up with her best girlfriend, LAPD detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey interview students at the high school, they realize that the facts don’t add up. Could it be that the students suspected of being the shooters are actually victims? And if so, does that mean that the real killers are still on the loose?

“LaVoy is a multifaceted narrator. Her voices are clear and realistic. She’s quick and glib and gives real personalities to the two investigators. This reviewer was inspired to backtrack to the first three books in the series. A.L.H. © AudioFile