Supreme Justice by Max Allan Collins

Hi, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Max Allan Collins's latest, Supreme Justice.

It looked like a robbery gone wrong - gunmen busted into a DC restaurant while Supreme Court Justice Henry Venter and his clerk were having a drink after work. The gunman turned to the clerk, Venter stood to make a move and was gunned down for his efforts. 

Enter ex Secret Service agent Joseph Reeder, aka Peep. After taking a bullet for the president, Reeder left the Service under not so friendly terms when he shared some of his opinions on the current political scene. Now he runs his own company, ABC Security. Reeder's skills in kinesics, "reading" body language, have made him a sought after consultant, which is why the folks investigating Venter's death approach him for his opinions on the case. What Reeder sees in the recording of the crime proves Venter's death was not in fact accidental. Venter was assassinated. And it soon begins to look as though there could be other targets to come. 

This is a prime example of a book that definitely came to me at the wrong time. And I truly hate it when that happens. Supreme Justice is not overly heavy in politics but overall it's a topic I'm a bit over at the moment. There's just too much mess in real life for it to appeal to me in my fiction. I would say, maybe in a different political climate, that the politicians seemed like over the top caricatures of the real thing but...

The idea of using kinesics to solve crimes is actually a compelling one. Reeder's skills read believably so there's really no point where it seems like a stretch that things are unfolding the way they do. And honestly, the plot and pacing are pretty dead on for a great thriller. So while this book and I weren't a fit, there's really nothing keeping me from recommending Supreme Justice to a reader more open to the setting than I currently am.

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.