Amazon.com
Chris Darden, better known for his courtroom performance in the O.J. Simpson trial than as a writer, makes his fiction debut with a suspense thriller whose two protagonists, L.A. prosecuting attorney Nikki Hill and her lover, police detective Virgil Sykes, seem like an idealized version of Darden and Marcia Clark. The good news is that Nikki and Virgil make a more interesting (and sexier) dream team in fiction than Darden and Clark did in real life. When Nikki is assigned to a high-profile case prosecuting Randy Bingham, the spaced-out son of a wealthy financier, for the murder of his girlfriend, Shelli Dietz, she and Virgil develop a special relationship with Shelli's orphaned son, a brilliant and precocious 10-year-old computer genius who's the chief witness against Bingham.