Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one was definitely better than the first book. I was happy to see growth in Rachel but would still like a bit more character development in all the characters. Sometimes I feel like Clark is trying to do Lucy and Ethel solve crimes without the humor when reading what happens. I'll keep reading the series, in part because NetGalley was gracious enough to give them to me for free, but I'm still unsure of who I would recommend them to. ( )

The preview for Guilt By Degrees by Marcia Clark made me sit up and take notice, wanting to read more.

I remember short pants…floods. Do you? Made me smile. Nice touch, Marcia.

I love that Rachel has to finish every book she begins…regardless…

The romance is slow burning and I think she takes as many cold showers as he does. LOL She hold her secrets close to her vest, sharing with no one, not even her BFFs.

Step by step, danger hovering. The writing for the Rachel Knight series keeps getting better and the suspense more intense.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Guilt by Degrees by Marcia Clark.

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Rachel Knight's next baffling case starts out with the murder of a homeless man. She is in court waiting for her turn with the judge when the case before hers goes belly up due to the sheer incompetence of the prosecutor. When the judge dismisses the case, Rachel decides she wants justice for the homeless victim and refiles.

Now Rachel and her friend Bailey have to build a case to get justice for the homeless guy. But nothing is simple. It takes a while to identify him and then they learn that he was the brother of a police officer who was butchered in his home a year earlier. The main suspect was his beautiful wife Lilah who also happened to be a lawyer. She was acquitted and then disappeared. Rachel and Bailey really want to find her and talk to her.

Meanwhile, Lilah has started a new secret business venture. It seems that she is in the business of digging up dirt on people and selling the information she finds. When Rachel starts to get close to finding her, she decides that Rachel has to go which leads to a couple of attempts on her life.

I liked the fast-paced action in this one. I also liked the realistic investigative techniques that Rachel and Bailey use. Rachel is also dealing with a romantic crisis as her current boyfriend is getting too close to the secrets Rachel wants to keep buried in her past. I liked that Rachel spends a lot of time meeting in various restaurants that all sound good and make me wonder if they actually exist in the LA area.

I recommend this series for fans of police procedurals and thrillers. ( )

An enjoyable read, especially if you want to read mystery/procedurals written by female authors and with empowered female characters. I would not call it "riotously entertaining" as one reviewer did, but it is a solid story, with well-developed characters -- the second in Clark's Rachel Knight series. Some good twists and turns, but Clark must have a marketing deal with various companies, because she drops more name brands in one book than I have seen in the last 50 I have read... oh, and the main character seems to really enjoy Pinot Noir, which is ok, because so do I. ( )

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That in no way changes my opinion of this book or this author.

Rachel Knight returns in “Guilt by Degrees” at the top of her game in the DA’s office. She takes on the case of a murdered homeless man, because of the horrible job another Prosecutor has done on it so far; but does not realize just how deep she is going to have to dig to find out the truth. She is racing the clock on this case, and needs the assistance of her friends on the police force to beat time. One thing she knows for certain is that justice needs to be served for this man who was senselessly murdered on the streets of Los Angeles.

Rachel is able to find some video of the incident, but nothing seems to make sense. The images are not as clear as she would hope, so it is uncertain who actually stabbed the victim, Simon. Immediately before Simon was stabbed, he is seen grabbing at a woman, who later disappears. Others dismissed it saying he was going to rob her of her purse and that a Good Samaritan standing by stabbed him to stop him, or even that the woman he was approaching stabbed him in self-defense. However, she is nowhere to be found and no one is speaking up.

Rachel and her friend Bailey discover that the woman in the video was the wife of Simon’s late brother, a LAPD cop who had also been murdered. Nothing seems to be as it appears in the least. Simon was convinced that Lilah, his ex-sister-in-law killed his brother, Zack, and had tried to prove her guilty. However, his search for her guilt took a toll on him mentally and physically; and ultimately lead to his demise.

Once again, this is another great book by Marcia Clark, and I am ready to dive into book 3.
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