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    A Good Killing: A Novel
    A Good Killing: A Novel
    A Good Killing: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    A Good Killing: A Novel

    Written by Allison Leotta

    Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Selected as one of “Summer’s Best of the Best” books by O, The Oprah Magazine, Allison Leotta’s spellbinding thriller follows prosecutor Anna Curtis as she heads home to Michigan to defend her sister in a case that will bring her to her knees.

    How far would you go to save your sister?

    Anna Curtis is back in her hometown just outside of Detroit. Newly single after calling off her wedding, Anna isn’t home to lick her wounds. She’s returned to support her sister, Jody, who has been wrongfully accused of murder after their old high school coach, a local hero, dies in a suspicious car crash.

    But maybe Jody isn’t so innocent after all. The police are convinced that Jody was having an affair with the married coach and killed him out of jealousy. As Anna investigates with the help of her childhood friend Cooper Bolden, an Afghan War veteran with a secret of his own, she slowly peels back the facade of her all-American town and discovers that no one is telling the truth about the coach, not even the people she thought she knew best. When the town rallies against them, threatening not just Jody’s liberty but both sisters’ lives, Anna resolves to do everything she can to save her sister and defend the only family she has left.

    In her best book yet “with surprising twists and an ultimately satisfying conclusion” (Booklist), Allison Leotta, “the female John Grisham” (The Providence Journal), explores the limits of vigilante justice, the bonds of sisterhood, and the price of the truth.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 12, 2015
    ISBN9781442383487
    Author

    Allison Leotta

    Allison Leotta was a federal sex-crimes prosecutor in Washington, DC, for twelve years. In 2011, she left the Justice Department to pursue writing full time. She is the acclaimed author of Law of Attraction, Discretion, Speak of the Devil, A Good Killing, and The Last Good Girl and founder of the award-winning blog, The Prime-Time Crime Review. Leotta lives with her husband, Michael, and their two sons outside of Washington, DC. Visit her online at AllisonLeotta.com.

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    Reviews for A Good Killing

    4.5/5

    90 ratings9 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This book had so much potential. Everything unraveled the last 2 ish hours. Awful. It got so tacky, dramatic and over the top. It totally jumped the shark. Then everything happening so perfectly and sunny. Boo.
    • 3/5
      I am in between a 3 and a 4 buh i just couldn’t click 4
      Its a nice book , i enjoyed it for the most part however i didnt like how straightforward it got from the middle of the book onwards
    • 5/5
      I enjoy everyone of her books ! This is only the second I've read and I like how she uses the same charectors
    • 4/5
      I loved the storyline of this book and the author did an amazing job of keeping me engaged the entire time, however, I'm not one to normally say things about a fictional story, but literally everything the author said about Detroit, is horribly inaccurate. I supposed she wanted to make the story more compelling by making Detroit some third-world wasteland without people. I was born and raised in Detroit, and I know the author states she lived in Detroit as well, but Detroit has always been full of life and community gardens, and a great community, just as every other city in Michigan. Of course, Detroit isn't perfect, but neither is Holly, Taylor, and a slew of other suburban cities in Michigan. I just felt that I needed to clear that up, since for some strange reason, people love to paint a very bad light on Detroit, and it's very easy for people who don't live there to believe it.
    • 3/5
      There were things I liked about this book, but it reads a lot more like YA or romantic suspense than a true suspense or thriller novel. The plot was good, rather unique at the end, but started out rather slow. The plot of the evil athletic coach is a little overused and that was the main theme for most of the book. Did keep me reading to the end.
    • 5/5
      An excellent thriller written by an author at the top of her Game. When prosecutor Anna Curtis returns home to defend her sister, she finds nothing is as it seems and that all she holds dear is in jeopardy. Excellent. DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Samantha Cody and Dub Walker thriller series
    • 5/5
      A sister's love for her sister comes to the front in Allison Leotta's "A Good Killing."The story was inspired by the real-life Jerry Sandusky case and captures the reader's attention from the first page and keeps running.Anna Curtis is a sex crimes prosecutor in Washington, D.C. She puts her career on hold and comes to Michigan to defend her sister Jody from a murder charge.Small town life is depicted and the love of football is well illustrated. High school football dominates the life of Holly Grove, a town not far from Detroit.Owen Fowler,the town's beloved football coach is dead and Jody Curtis is charged with the crime.The pacing of the story is right on the mark as current action is separated from the incidents of Jody's life as a fifteen-year-old. She is a high school athlete competing in the high jump and searching for something she could do that would surpass her older sister who is a star and a college student at that time.Coach Fowler becomes Jody's mentor and life seems grand. Then, something happens and Jody's dreams are shattered.Anna shows intelligence and determination as she defends her sister. She's coming from her own emotional roller coaster as she has just called off her wedding. A high school friend and Afghan War vet and amputee, helps in the investigation. He is well described and the kind of character the reader will want to succeed.The dialogue flows smoothly and small town life jumps from the pages. It's the kind of story the reader will want to turn the pages gripped with the suspense and emotional upheaval of the story.I received a free book in return for my honest review.
    • 5/5
      An almost perfectly executed thriller, A Good Killing by Allison Leotta is the fourth novel in her Anna Curtis series. Well-developed characters, a tightly written mystery and plenty of emotional angst kept me turning the pages from start to finish. In fact, I got so caught up on this book, I didn’t want to put it down. While this is the fourth book in an established series, this book stands on its own and I was able to enjoy it without having read any of the previous novels. Of course, now I want to read the first three books I missed.Having just broken off her engagement, D.C. federal sex-crime prosecutor Anna Curtis feels as if her life is up in the air. When she receives a call from a childhood friend, Anna discovers that her hometown’s beloved football coach has died, and that somehow her younger sister, Jody, is wanted by the police for questioning. Jumping on the next plane home to Michigan, Anna soon finds herself playing defense attorney for the first time in her life and desperate to prove her sister innocent. Something she begins to question as her investigation digs deeper into her hometown’s secrets. With the help of Cooper Bolden, a childhood friend and Iraq war vet with his own secrets, Anna soon discovers that home isn’t always what we think it is as children.Ms. Leotta does an excellent job developing the primary characters in this story; I easily connected with both Anna and Jody from the start and enjoyed getting to know them more as the story developed. Told in first person by both Anna and Jody, we get to see a fuller picture of their background and what has been taking place in both women’s lives. Born to a hard working mother and alcoholic father, Anna and Jody were both determined to get an education and get out of town, but only Anna managed to leave while Jody stayed behind and went to work at GM in Detroit.While both girls loved their mother, and she eventually raised them as a single mom and did the best she could, Anna and Jody have a close and yet fractured relationship; Jody’s been keeping secrets for a long time and both of them have a hard time trusting men. Something they’ve both learned the hard way. While equally intelligent, Jody’s past (both long term and recent), that’s tied to her personal history with the deceased coach, makes the police look at Jody as their best candidate for a suspect and puts Anna in the position of having to look at the law, and our justice system, from the defenses point of view. Something she’s never really thought about beforeThe secondary characters are also well developed and I especially enjoyed getting to know Cooper Bolden, their childhood friend and hottie yet damaged war veteran. We also got to meet some characters from Anna’s life in D.C., such as Grace her best friend and Jack, the man she was going to marry, who is also technically one of her bosses. We get to meet Jody’s best friend, Kathy, who’s got her own issues with the dead coach, which turn out to be tied to Jody’s case.The mystery itself, as to who murdered the coach and why, is very well done. The story takes plenty of twists and turns, and we discover who the coach really was as a teacher, a husband and man about town. Ms. Leotta’s story also deals with a topic close to my heart in this story, how athletes and their coaches, have somehow been able to get away with a code of behavior that would get anyone else in trouble with the law. As recent events in real life have come to light with professional athletes, Ms. Leotta’s story highlights how this insidious behavior affects both large and small towns.Will Anna be able to prove her sister’s innocence? Will uncovering her hometown’s secrets result in any additional deaths? And will Anna and Cooper’s mutual attraction change the course of Anna’s life? You’ll have to read A Good Killing to find out. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to read the next book in this series.*** I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher for a fair and honest review.
    • 4/5
      When her sister cannot be found, Washington, D. C. prosecutor Anna Curtis returns to her Holly Grove, Michigan home town. She finds her sister being interviewed by the police and things take a decidedly downward turn when Jody is suspected of being involved in the fiery crash that claimed the life of the town’s beloved high school coach. Anna turns defense lawyer to defend her sister when that suspicion turns into a murder charge. But the town’s closely-held secrets may keep her from finding the truth and, despite Anna’s courtroom skills, may ultimately send her sister to prison.The suspenseful narrative of this legal thriller moves quickly and plot twists will keep readers invested. Recommended.