Book Review: Mission Hill by Pamela Weschsler

MISSION HILL by Pamela Weschsler

Publisher: Minotaur Books – Released May, 2016

Mystery –Legal Thriller – Police Procedural

Pages – 304

BLURB

Abby Endicott is chief of the District Attorney’s homicide unit in Boston, where she investigates and prosecutes the city’s most dangerous killers. A member of Mission Hill’s elite, and a graduate of the Winsor school and then Harvard Law, the prosecutor’s office is not the prestigious job that would have been expected of her. She has been known to change into an evening gown amidst bodies in the morgue. She loves her job, and is committed to it, refusing all pressure to quit from her upper-crust parents or threats from the city’s most ruthless killers. But among Abby’s many secrets is her longtime affair with fellow prosecutor Tim Mooney, a married father of one.

One night, Abby is awakened very late by a phone call from her favorite detective, who reports that there has been a horrific murder but is vague about the specifics. When she arrives at the crime scene and discovers the identity of the victim, Abby knows the terror and tragedy are only beginning.

In Mission Hill, debut novelist Pamela Wechsler delivers a gripping and very human portrayal of a woman who will stop at nothing to find the truth, even if it challenges everything she believes about justice.

REVIEW

Pamela Wechsler’s MISSION HILL takes readers behind the scenes as her protagonist Homicide Prosecutor Abby Endicott leads her investigation of a murder of a colleague and at the same time prepares her prosecution of a major crime figure that could cost her career at the Boston District Attorney’s office and maybe her life. Wechsler provides her readers with Abby’s history including her relationship with her wealthy family who want her to leave the District Attorney’s Office. The Endicott family will go to any length to force Abby to quit. The author places her readers on Abby’s shoulder so they can see and feel her passion for putting criminals away. Tough and driven Abby is as she goes after a ruthless killer who threatens to take her out. Wechsler takes readers through the prosecution’s decision-making process and how they affect others.

The author creates several interesting support characters and subplots that change the storyline’s direction and potential outcome of the trial. The courtroom comes alive as Abby plays hardball in her cross-examinations in her pursuit of justice for the current case and a sixteen-year-old case. Readers find themselves holding their breath as they wait for the jury to finish their deliberations. MISSION HILL’s surprise ending to Wechsler’s legal thriller brings readers to the edge of their seats, when Abby finds out at the last minute the identity of the murderer of her close friend and colleague. An enjoyable must read.

Reviewed by John W. Kurtze

BUY LINKS

https://www.amazon.com/Graves-Abby-Endicott-Novels/dp/1250077885/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-graves-pamela-wechsler/1124363094

http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Graves/Pamela-Wechsler/9781250077882

https://itunes.apple.com/fr/book/the-graves/id1175101983?l=en&mt=11

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250077882

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAMELA WECHSLER spent over fifteen years working as a criminal prosecutor at the local, state and federal levels. She has served as an assistant district attorney and assistant attorney general in Boston, and she was a trial attorney for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. She has investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of crimes, including: murder, witness intimidation, sexual assault, drug trafficking, stock market manipulation, and political corruption. Pam has worked as a producer, writer, and legal consultant for numerous network television shows. Her credits include: Law and Order; Law and Order: Criminal Intent; Law and Order: Trial by Jury; Conviction; Canterbury’s Law; Doubt; and Bull. Pam grew up in the Boston area and is a graduate of Tufts and Boston University School of Law. She is the author of Mission Hill and The Graves.