Dana Hill is a cracker-jack lawyer, with a lovely three-year-old daughter and a bad marriage. Now her doctor is telling her that the lump she found in her breast is malignant and they must start treatment right away. They caught the cancer early, but they must be aggressive. Reeling from this shock, she then gets a call that her beloved twin brother, James, is dead. He was murdered in his home, having walked in on a burglary. However Dana is convinced there is more to the story. Why would burglars target James’ house? He literally gave away all of his worldly possession when he left private practice to become a law professor.

It is while she is packing up James’ belongings that she finds what could be the key to the mystery - a very expensive, one-of-a-kind earring. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, and it gives Dana a shock. As far as she knew her brother wasn’t dating anyone. But the more she investigates, the more she realizes that her brother was keeping quite a few secrets from her.

What makes Dugoni’s latest excel is Dana. He writes his female protagonist very well, and this reviewer thinks more than one female reader will relate to her. Her marriage is a sham, but she’s determined to tough it out for her daughter’s sake. Then her brother is murdered, and she gets the cancer diagnosis. On top of that, her job is stressful and her boss is just itching for an excuse to fire her. She’s fallen into the trap of being Super Woman, and her life seems to be crumbling down around her anyway.

What doesn’t work quite so well are the rest of the secondary characters, who have a tendency to come off as one-dimensional. Also, once Dana starts snooping around, she finds herself coming into contact with Detective Mike Logan. Logan is the quintessential nice guy, and is attracted to Dana, which is probably why he freely lets her muddle around in a police investigation. In his defense, he probably didn’t know at first that the earring was important, but he continues to let Dana carry it around even after the pieces start to fall into place. Shouldn’t he at least pretend he’s going to take it to the police evidence locker? Also, when Dana’s snooping and questions have serious consequences, he doesn’t bother to play bad cop, instead continuing to take her along on his investigation. It just didn’t ring true.

They suspense thread hums along, and with so many balls in Dana’s court, the pages turn easily. It would be a stretch to call this a legal thriller (Dugoni has been drawing comparisons to John Grisham) since Dana’s job doesn’t play much of a role in the story. She could easily be a chef, schoolteacher, librarian or doctor and the story would still hang together fairly well.

While the police aspect of the plot is a bit sloppy, and the secondary characters lack depth, Dana is a great heroine and carries the story very well. Damage Control is a pleasant, undemanding read that easily kept this reviewer entertained for several hours. It didn’t knock my socks off, but it also didn’t make me feel like I had wasted my time.

--Wendy Crutcher