Fatal Distraction is the second installment in the Jess Kimball series from the prolific and enterprising Diana Capri. Kimball is a crusading, sleuthing investigative reporter on the victims’ rights beat. Having experienced the unresolved tragedy of having her toddler-aged son abducted a decade earlier, Kimball devotes her life to making sure that the guilty get punished—while never abandoning the search for her son.
Kimball’s nemesis takes the form of David Manson, an oily, infuriating demagogue who has seized on the anti-death penalty movement as his ticket to power and influence. He doesn’t personally care about the death penalty, but he’s happy to exploit everyone else’s tragedy to get his lying face on TV. With Capri’s emotional string pulling, you just love to hate this insufferable guy.
Meanwhile, Florida governor Helen Sullivan a former prosecutor, grapples with the decision to stay the execution of Tommy Taylor, a convicted child killer. While Sullivan doesn’t personally believe in the death penalty, it would be politically wise for her not to stop Taylor’s lethal injection.
We learn that Sullivan has a tragic backstory, too. Her teenaged son, Eric, died in a drunk driving accident three years earlier. As if this had not been bad enough, the father of another boy killed in the crash goes berserk at Eric’s funeral, pulls a gun and shoots Sullivan’s husband, Oliver, who proceeds to have a stroke. Helen has had to move on with her life and be strong as the governor while mourning her son and coping with a badly incapacitated husband.
Kimball interviews Helen about the Taylor execution, struggling to hear each other over the amplified screaming of a mob of Manson anti-death penalty protesters outside the governor’s mansion. A bomb blast then throws the chaotic event into complete mayhem. The bomber is a man whose son was murdered by Taylor.
Kimball races off to the talk to the bomber’s widow, while Helen prepares to give a speech at a big fundraiser in which she is expected to announce a run for the senate. Before she can make her announcement however, she gets news of a terrible tragedy. As we see, in parallel, a crazed arsonist ha targeted Oliver at home, lighting fire to the stables at their ranch with the goal of killing the Sullivans’ beloved horses—and the pets of their late son—while also getting rid of Oliver.
Oliver survives the ordeal, but he’s in a coma and it’s not clear he’s ever coming out. He saw his attacker, however, so the rest of the book is spent waiting to see if he’ll wake up. Helen orders her security detail to help the local police investigate the arson and attempted murder of her husband. It’s starting to look as if someone is targeting her family. Could it be that someone caused her son’s car crash, and is now adding to her suffering by killing her horses and trying to murder her husband?
At the same time, as the clock counts down to Taylor’s execution, Kimball has gotten a lead that unknown, last-minute evidence could exonerate Taylor. It’s a million to one shot, but she’s on it.
Capri reveals the real killer pretty early on in the book, so it becomes an open mystery. You know what’s going on, but Helen and Kimball do not. Slowly, you see their suspicions take shape. In this, as in other aspects of the book, Capri is good with suspense. She keeps things moving along.
Capri’s background as a lawyer is also on display in this book. The details are compelling, though there are moments when you think, wait, is that really how something like this would work? But, it’s okay. You’re in the story, so it doesn’t matter.
Capri is good at creating driven, serious female characters. My only comment on this, here, is that you spend the book dealing with people who have lost children, and it’s heavy going. You feel for them, which is a sign of good writing, but you also feel (at least I did) that sort of dark weight you get when you’re dealing with tragic figures. There’s almost no lightness in the book at all, no moments of laughter or zaniness, and they would have been welcome.