In British author Cooper's gripping sixth mystery to feature ambitious barrister Trish McGuire (after 2003's A Place of Safety), Trish joins the prosecution team in a class-action lawsuit against one of Britain's largest food-store chains. Trish finds she has more than a professional interest when she and her friend, Insp. Caro Lyalt, are victims of food poisoning. With Caro in hospital, Trish undertakes her own investigation of the meat trade, with one of the members of the class action as cohort. She also takes on Kim Bowlby, a young child in Caro's protective custody. With the men in her life vacationing on the other side of the world, Trish is free to carry on a flirtation with the Head of Chambers, who may have something more serious in mind. The suspense builds, as Cooper deftly interweaves the several plot lines. Is the person whose help she enlists in looking into the meat trade as trustworthy as Trish supposes? What terror keeps Kim mute? Anglophiles will enjoy the glimpses of the Inns of Court and the British civil court system, though some may scratch their heads at the more obscure British legalese (e.g., "to take silk"). More attractive and sympathetic than Insp. Jane Tennyson of Mystery! fame, Trish is a natural for adaptation by British TV. (Oct. 29) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

British attorney Trish Maguire (A Place of Safety) represents a group of small food producers in a suit against a giant supermarket chain, but she will only get paid if she wins. When two people connected to one of her clients are killed, she investigates his trustworthiness. Pleasantly dark, psychologically intense; for fans of Claire Curzon and Val McDermid. Cooper lives in England. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Trish Maguire, barrister and staunch defender of the weak (A Place of Safety, 2003, etc.), wonders whether it's really better not to know how sausages get made. The client, Will Applewood, was a small producer of foie gras and specialty meat products until an exploitative deal with a giant grocery store chain bankrupted him. Trish and her head of chambers, Antony Shelley, are suing the chain on behalf of the Will and other victims. When Trish and her good friend Caro, a police officer in the Child Protection Unit, are poisoned by bad sausages, Will eagerly offers to track down the producers. He's obsessively certain that meat packers everywhere are skirting hygiene regulations. Trish, eager to keep her volatile client out of trouble while she and Antony work and flirt, must also find time to help Caro, recovering in the hospital, with a case of child abuse. Will investigates almost too well, connecting the bad sausages with a dead investigative journalist, until he and his new girlfriend, an employee of the suspect sausage company, are brutally beaten by a man whose neck Will breaks in self-defense--or so he says. The suspense will keep readers from looking too closely at the coincidences, but nothing will distract them from the disgusting way one loose end gets tied up. It's enough to make you a vegetarian. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Barrister Trish Maguire is working a case on a no-win, no-fee basis. Her clients are a group of small food producers who contend that they were cheated by supermarket giant Furbishers Foods. The producers were led to believe they had lucrative contracts with Furbishers only to find the terms changed after they expanded their businesses to meet the projected demand. Will Applewood, the most vocal plaintiff, enlists Trish's help to prove that bad meat from Furbishers is reaching consumers. Trish is sympathetic until she begins to wonder if Will's obsession with the cause has affected his judgment. While trying to win her case, Trish, who formerly worked with abused children, is also asked to interview a young girl, the possible victim of abuse by her stepfather. Details of the English court system, child-protection laws, and the meatpacking industry add to the story. Trish is a principled, sympathetic character, and this fast-paced mystery, the sixth in a series, finds her in good form. --Sue O'Brien Copyright 2004 Booklist