So this is book five of the Joe Dillard series. Like I’ve said in my previous four reviews, I like the characters in these books. Nearly immediately, we’re thrown into the story of a little girl (I think she’s 5 or 6) being kidnapped from her bed. Joe’s wife Caroline taught the little girl in dance class for years, so she’s nearly part of the family. As soon as they hear about the kidnapping, Caroline makes them go over to the couple’s neighborhood and look for the little girl. Obviously they don’t find her, or it’d be a 14 page book.
The “conflict of interest” in this book comes from Joe being hired to represent the parents of the little girl who was kidnapped. They’re afraid they’re going to be accused of kidnapping and killing their daughter. There’s a shady ransom drop that Joe’s involved in, and some other crap.
The father of the little girl eventually does get arrested for kidnapping her, because the cops find DNA evidence and other disgusting evidence. His wife plans to divorce him, and she gets rid of Joe as her lawyer. Then Joe gets removed as the father’s lawyer because he was involved in the ransom drop. This whole time Caroline believes that the little girl is still alive, and even though Joe is no longer on the case, she begs him to find her. Because Joe is a good husband and also because he needs to know what happened to her, he unofficially puts himself back on the case. I’m not going to spoil the ending because it’s worth the read!