Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Prior Bad Acts: Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, Book 3
    Unavailable
    Prior Bad Acts: Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, Book 3
    Unavailable
    Prior Bad Acts: Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, Book 3
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Prior Bad Acts: Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, Book 3

    Written by Tami Hoag

    Narrated by Erik Bergmann

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns with a thriller that begins with a shocking crime scene you'll never forget and follows two relentless detectives on a manhunt that ends in a chilling confrontation with the essence of human evil.

    It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl's prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry-and puts the judge in grave danger.

    When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis's top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn't far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.

    The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped-snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.

    With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 21, 2006
    ISBN9780739321980
    Unavailable
    Prior Bad Acts: Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska, Book 3
    Author

    Tami Hoag

    TAMI HOAG is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books. There are more than forty million copies of her books in print in more than thirty languages. Renowned for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag first hit the New York Times bestseller list with Night Sins, and each of her books since has been a bestseller. She lives in California.

    More audiobooks from Tami Hoag

    Related to Prior Bad Acts

    Related audiobooks

    Suspense For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Money For Old Tropes

      Feb 21, 2021

      Money For Old Tropes
      1 min read

    • Article

      5 Crime Must-Reads for July

      Jun 29, 2017

      5 Crime Must-Reads for July
      2 min read

    • Article

      What To Read?

      Feb 12, 2021

      Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi are back for another round of cases to solve at The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. For starters, part-time detective Charlie borrows Mme Ramotswe’s little white van for a mysterious errand, returning it with an odd

      1 min read

    • Article

      All Stitched up

      Apr 24, 2022

      All Stitched up
      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Apr 8, 2023

      By Joanna Jenkins Gavin Jones is dead at thirty-nine. As an in-house lawyer who controlled millions of dollars in fees per year, he was legal firm Howard Greene's biggest client and wielded that power with manipulative contempt. But he saved his wors

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Crime Classic Gets A New Chapter

      Dec 17, 2018

      JOHN GRISHAM HAS WRITTEN DOZENS of legal thrillers but just one book of nonfiction: The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. Published in 2006, the true-crime story profiles Ron Williamson, a mentally ill man who, along with his friend

      2 min read

    • Article

      Edge Of The Axe

      Jan 29, 2020

      EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1988 | 15 | Blu-ray Director José Ramón Larraz Cast Barton Faulks, Christina It hit cinemas close to the Marie Lane, Page Moseley Slasher movies aren’t exactly renowned for their impeccable logic, but this ’80s Spanish-made p

      1 min read

    • Article

      Murder He Wrote

      Jan 1, 2021

      Murder He Wrote
      12 min read

    • Article

      Serial And Making A Murderer Seek Redemption In Sequels

      Nov 5, 2018

      SEASON 3 OF THE TRUE-CRIME PODCAST SERIAL doesn’t explore any brutal murders where the facts don’t add up. Its subjects aren’t famous. They can’t afford expensive defense attorneys who dramatically unearth DNA evidence. Instead, they’re bar brawlers,

      5 min read

    • Article

      The End of the Fictional Cop

      Jul 31, 2020

      The End of the Fictional Cop
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mystery & suspense

      Jan 21, 2022

      Celebrated forensic expert Lincoln Rhyme is giving evidence in the trial of mobster Victor Buryak who has been charged with murder. Rhyme’s testimony is supposed to clinch the case but when gaping holes in his forensic evidence emerge, Buryak walks f

      3 min read

    • Article

      Once More, Into The Breach

      Sep 25, 2022

      Once More, Into The Breach
      2 min read

    • Article

      Passionate Amateurs

      Sep 22, 2018

      After her stepbrother was shot and killed, producer Wendy West was plunged into a world she had always written about-the world of cops and crime. She soon found herself becoming an amateur sleuth, determined to solve her brother's murder on her own,

      1 min read

    • Article

      Adam LeBor on Television

      Jul 27, 2023

      Seeking a television series to see you through the summer? Here are my recommendations: Idris Elba is now so famous, with such a strong screen persona, that no matter which tough guy he is playing, I think “Oh look, it’s Idris Elba.” He delivers once

      3 min read

    • Article

      Solving The Unsolved: How Cities Are Turning Up Heat On Cold Cases

      Feb 25, 2019

      In 1965, US detectives routinely cleared nearly 90 percent of murder cases. Today, 40 percent of homicides go unsolved, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

      10 min read

    Reviews for Prior Bad Acts

    3.5/5

    241 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      The horrible, brutal murder of a mother and her two foster children is the centerpiece of this thriller. Drifter and petty criminal Karl Dahl is assumed to be the perpetrator. After all, he has a history of smaller sexual crimes from peeping to exposing himself in public. But Judge Cary Moore isn't going to let those past Prior Bad Acts be presented in the current case. This decision infuriates Detective Stan Dempsey who found his life changed by the crime. He's a loner who lived for the job but his obsession with this case has him on desk duty and on his way out the door of the police force short of the time needed for his thirty year pension.When Judge Moore is assaulted in the parking garage where she keeps her car outside the court building, Kovac and Liska get the case despite the fact that neither of them are fond of the judge's rulings which seem to bend too much to the criminal's side. As Kovac gets closer to the judge and her five-year-old daughter, Liska is looking into the family of the murdered woman and coming up with troubling things. Kovac begins to suspect that the Judge's husband might have hired someone to attack his wife. Their marriage is hanging on by a thread and he has been supporting a girlfriend. His career as a film producer never took off and he feels overshadowed by his wife, the judge. Then Karl Dahl escapes from prison and focuses on Judge Moore who he sees as an angel who is on his side. This thriller had a wide assortment of probable villains and I was led astray by a number of red herrings before the case finally came to its thrilling conclusion. I liked the banter between Kovac and Liska and the other police detectives. I'm glad that there are five other thrillers starring Kovac and Liska.
    • 5/5
      Great story, lots of twists.
    • 4/5
      Detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska from DUST TO DUST are back for an encore peformance. This time their investigation involves one of Minneapolis's most grisly crimes, the murder a mother and her two foster children. Judge Carey Moore's decision to disallow suspect's Karl Dahl's prior criminal record has upset many in the community. Judge Moore is mugged in the parking garage and later threatened. To make matters worse Karl Dahl escaped from prison. Now Kovac and Liska must find Dahl , protect Judge Moore and apprehend a rogue cop while continuing their on-going investigation of the Haas case.

      Tami Hoag delivers a standard crime thriller, but with engaging characters and a well-paced plot. A couple of warnings-leave enough time to read it and the violence is rather graphic. Weak stomachs beware.
    • 4/5
      I just really, really love Kovac and Liska. This one was heavy on the Kovac and I really enjoyed it. The book was a little slow to start and was on the violent side, but kept you guessing and kept you on the edge of your seat in the latter part of the book. A good solid enjoyable read.
    • 2/5
      The author has a great ear for dialogue, but this book was too raw, and the detective-victim romance was unbelievable. I quit halfway through.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed reading another one of Tami's books. I found that this one was hard to put down when I had other things to do but when I had the time I didn't put it down. This story had alot of twists to it and thats the best.
    • 4/5
      Mediocre thriller! New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns with a thriller that begins with a shocking crime scene you’ll never forget and follows two relentless detectives on a manhunt that ends in a chilling confrontation with the essence of human evil.It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl’s prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry—and puts the judge in grave danger.When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis’s top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm. Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn’t far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control.The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped—snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed.With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.
    • 4/5
      I found Prior Bad Acts to be better then Kill The Messenger and Dark Horse, but it was still not up to par with some of Tami’s past novels. I found the book started out slow and thought it was a little confusing. Eventually the plot did pick up and it turned out to be not a bad book. The ending was well planned, exciting and surprising. I did enjoy the characters as well. I have really been kinda disappointed with Tami Hoag’s last 3 books. I find her writing style is really changing. She seems to be cutting out the romance in her books. And I think that is a bad thing because I really enjoy her romance novels. I hope she gets back on track with her next book.
    • 3/5
      Brutal mystery in which sad people with dark secrets live lives of growing complexity and despair. Although the story was horribly engaging as it unfolded I imagine that it will soon fade to a blurred memory because I did not relate to any of the characters.
    • 2/5
      The third book I have written by Tami. Thrilling drama about cops and victims. Sort of Sandra Brownish...
    • 4/5
      I picked up this audiobook without knowing anything about the plot. I just knew the narrator was Holter Graham and I have really enjoyed his previous "performances". I was quite pleased when this book fit my usual taste in books.... murder, mystery, suspence... it had it all. I was hooked from the beginning and found myself trying to figure out the many "who-done'its" to no avail. I will have to pick up more works by Tami Hoag now.
    • 5/5
      This is fast, detailed and frightening. A super thriller that had me hooked from the outset. There are the obvious love interests but in this case it feels more natural than cliched. Carey Moore is a Judge who has worked very hard to get where she is. Faced with Karl Dahl who is deemed to be a brutal killer (the crime is truly horrific) she is the only one who seems to be preventing him being kept in custody. She hits the media spotlight when she rules that his prior bad acts are inadmissable. Detective Sam Kovac and his partner Nikki Liska are called in as protection. Dahl escapes and this thriller begins. Great characters, plot and narrative; this novel is difficult to put down. Hoag's writing involves the reader and occasionally some chapters begin with a character picking up from another character in a previous chapter. It is difficult to discuss too much of the plot for this novel without spoiling it but (as is not always the case) the praise quotes are generally accurate. Highly enjoyable from the great beginning to a thrilling ending.