Prior Bad Acts

By: Tami Hoag

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl's prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry, and puts the judge in grave danger. When an unknown assailant attacks Judge Moore in a parking garage, two of Minneapolis' top cops are called upon to solve the crime and keep the judge from further harm.

Detective Sam Kovac is as hard-boiled as they come, and his wisecracking partner, Nikki Liska, isn't far behind. Neither one wants to be on this case, but when Karl Dahl escapes from custody, everything changes, and a seemingly straightforward case cartwheels out of control. The stakes go even higher when the judge is kidnapped, snatched out of her own bed even as the police sit outside, watching her house. Now Kovac and Liska must navigate through a maze of suspects that includes the stepson of a murder victim, a husband with a secret life, and a rogue cop looking for revenge where the justice system failed. With no time to spare, the detectives are pulled down a strange dark trail of smoke and mirrors, where no one is who they seem and everyone is guilty of Prior Bad Acts.

©2006 Tami Hoag (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The breathtaking plot twists are perfectly paced in this compulsive page-turner." (Publishers Weekly)
"A first-rate thriller with an ending that will knock your socks off." (Booklist)

narrator ruins story

The narrator has a weird stilted way of reading. Stops at unlogical places and sounds like a robot sounding out words more often than not. Really ruined the book for me...

Very Good!

This is the first Tami Hoag book I have read in years and I'm adding this author to my "must read" list. Very well crafted and narrated. I highly recommend.

Very Good!!!

Fantastic story, interesting character. Very well written novel.

Good plot with interesting twists

I am a fan of Tami Hoag's. This is a good listen, but "The Messenger" gets a higher rating from me. The multiple plot twists kept me very interested and wanting to put the next CD in. Good character development, although it's hard to believe that the main character would be as naive as portrayed. I would recommend this title, but if you haven't listened to Hoag before, check out some of her previous work.

GREAT read!

This is a book with many twists and turns, exciting plot, the solving of a brutal crime, and yet lightened by occasional humor. The narrator's voice for the "criminal" was excellent...the childlike quality and pace matched the character's stunted soul. For me, the conclusion seemed to drag out a little, but that's being a little nit-picky about a really great read.

More Like 3.5 Stars

This book was better than a 3, but not as good as a 4. I finished it with no problem. It was interesting with some plot twists...that's a good thing. I think what pushed it towards the 3 was the sheer number of villains and the volume of "bad acts." It just got to be a bit much.

Narrator .... not so good for this series

Great story - love Tami Hoag books and the story is in line with all of her books. Always enjoy "Kojak & Tinks" but the narrator couldn't deliver on the character of these two. He had an adolescent voice that did not match the gruff cop Covak or tough Liska, so it takes away from the book. Once I finished this one, I immediately went to another in the series with the original narrator and what a difference! There are terrible narrator's and I would NOT say Holter is one, just that he was not suited for this read.

What a terrible narrator!

The guy who read/performed this book nearly ruined it totally! It was like a 10 year old kid trying to read aloud an adult book, his breathless voice & rushed faster reading to try to indicate excitement was most often reminiscent of a nail on a blackboard & extremely hard to listen to! I think whomever makes these decisions of who they hire to read the book should reconsider and see if they can hire David Colacchi to reread it--I would love to hear it again performed well and using the voices we have come to associate with the characters. Please, please do us a great service and rerecord it with almost anyone doing the reading--I'll do it for free!! It's that bad! I did manage to get through it so I can finish the series with my husband but we both almost skipped it. As it turned out we were happy we finished it as it was & good story and 1 we really wanted to hear. The Sam Kovak & Nikki Laska team is one we are enjoying a lot.

loved it!

such a great story! I love how the characters pop in & out. you never know who will show up! enjoy!

Tami Hoag is at the top of my list

I really enjoyed this story. The narrator is not my favorite, but I don't hate him either. I had a little bit of a hard time at first but liked the story enough to keep going. By the middle of the book I had gotten acustomed to him and it went better. I loved the little bits of humor thrown in to some of the dialogue. Looking forward to the next book!!!