Mitigating Circumstances

High on concept but abysmally low on craft, this first novel by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, a former policewoman, tells the story of an assistant district attorney who murders the ex-cop who raped her and her young daughter, then tries to conceal her crime from a tenacious homicide detective. Although Mitigating Circumstances is lacking in suspense and credibility and chock-full of sexual atrocities, gay and Latino stereotypes, and some of the most offensive black dialogue since Amos 'n' Andy, the book has nevertheless been sold to the movies in a six-figure deal. Which just proves the novel's less-than-novel thesis: There is no justice. D