The high-stakes trial of a sophisticated serial killer tests a young DA’s faith in the justice system. When investigators are called to a meticulously staged crime scene on a canal bank in rural Central California - the latest in a series of murders that have killed three young women in one month - they realise a dangerous serial killer is on the loose, someone who is highly adept at hiding his tracks. And before the murderer can be brought to justice, young assistant DA Matt Jamison will lose his illusions about what justice means. As a fourth victim is abducted and investigators race against time, Jamison must cope with a sophisticated and elusive killer, a politically-minded sheriff eager to claim credit and spread blame, mounting pressure to win a high-profile trial, and his own conscience as part of the machinery of justice. A gripping, fast-paced, and coldly realistic thriller that tracks a killer from the crime scene to the courtroom and to a devastating aftermath, Fractured Justice is a stunning debut crime novel from a former investigator, prosecutor, and judge who intimately knows the real world of attorneys, detectives, and men who kill. AUTHOR: ames A. Ardaiz is a former prosecutor, judge, and Presiding Justice of the California Fifth District Court of Appeal. His first book was Hands Through Stone, a nonfiction account of the investigation and prosecution of murderer Clarence Ray Allen. SELLING POINTS: . Realistic murder mystery/legal drama written by a veteran investigator, prosecutor, and judge. . Dramatic, high-stakes action. . Intense and dramatic depiction of legal battles in a major murder case, based on in-depth, real-world professional knowledge. . Chillingly sophisticated and elusive villain. . Appealingly dogged and determined protagonist. . Subtle, realistic characterisation.