For more than 25 years Marissa Batt has tried cases for the People in every one of the 35 courtrooms at the Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles, cases ranging from rape and sodomy to armed robbery and murder. Despite her years immersed in violence and its concomitant pain and suffering, Batt has never become hardened or jaded. She has an unshakable belief that justice prevails, whether it happens inside or outside a courtroom. In the pages of this slap-in-the-face look at the criminal justice system (Kirkus Reviews), she presents three of her most difficult and terrifying cases. Each more gripping and moving than the last, they showcase the tremendous courage and humanity of the victims. One case was an eye-popping combination of rape, attempted murder, and arson; another was a brutal same-sex rape; and the third was a vicious vigilante-style murder. Try as you might to look away, you cannot. Told in a voice full of grit as well as compassion, this is true crime at its best.
