Overworked, powerful Philadelphia attorney Dana Svennsen has just returned home on the red-eye after a month long trial in California that ended with a brilliant victory. En route to a morning business meeting to celebrate – without even stopping first at home – Dana is talking with her client on her car phone when his helicopter collides with a small plane directly over the amusement park that Dana's two young daughters are visiting on a school trip.

As Dana races to the scene to be with her children, who are uninjured, she realizes that her client may be liable for millions of dollars, regardless of which aircraft was at greater fault. Assembling a crack team of lawyers and airline experts to investigate, she soon learns that the collision may not have been an accident.

Dana's investigation soon puts both her and her family at risk. And her troubled relationship with her husband may not be able to handle the extra stress.

Tall, blonde, beautiful and supposedly brilliant, Dana Svenssen (called Great Dana by her younger colleagues) is a tough, but not particularly sympathetic, heroine. Her parenting skills are sadly lacking. (Sending her two traumatized little girls home on the bus after they've seen horrible things that would send an adult into therapy?) And, at times, her investigative skills seem little better. (How many break-ins should it take for her to figure out someone is looking for an item that she possesses?)

Strangely enough, the most sympathetic character in the book may be Dana's philandering husband, Whit, a college professor who is understandably threatened and overwhelmed by the starstruck former student who has become his powerful, driven and often absent wife. Whit's character and courage are revealed during his stint as a kidnap victim.

If you can overlook an unsympathetic heroine, and enjoy a thriller with non-stop action and some fascinating insights into both the personal and professional lives of powerful trial attorneys, then Angle of Impact is a can't-put-down read.

--Dede Anderson