Assistant D.A. Julia Chandler prides herself on being tough on the bad guys. A hard-nosed prosecutor for the state, she likes to see justice handed out swiftly and with as little mercy as possible. Julia has to rethink her position when her teenage niece, Emily, is accused of murdering her stepfather and then trying to commit suicide. Julia can't bring herself to believe that Emily is capable of doing either.

Now Julia finds herself on the other side of the law. The side where a desperate and frustrated family member believes in the innocence of a loved one even as the evidence against them keeps stacking up. Julia enlists the services of private investigator Connor Kincaid, a man whose career Julia ruined years before in an Internal Affairs scandal.

Connor, forced to resign from the police force, has never forgiven Julia, but he loves Emily like a little sister and signs on for the defense. During the course of their investigation, the team discovers an online "wish list" -- a chat room run by a court-appointed psychiatrist where teenagers are encouraged to post their feelings about adults who have "wronged" them in some way. Now it looks like someone, or maybe more than one someone, is acting on those postings. Julia and Connor learn there have been a series of murders they can positively link to the list. They also soon discover that they've become the group's next targets.

A compelling romantic thriller about a group of troubled teenage bad seeds and the defense team working to bring them down. Early on, I thought I knew who was behind everything. I was so wrong! The first book in Brennan's suspenseful series was SPEAK NO EVIL (released last month). Coming next month is the last book in the trilogy, FEAR NO EVIL.