Face Value: A Rachel Gold Mystery

As St Louis attorney Rachel Gold knows firsthand the grueling hours and demands of Big Law take their toll on young lawyers Some turn to drugs some quit the profession and occasionally one quits altogether According to the medical examiner Sari Bashir quit for good on leaving work one Thursday night when she fell to her death from the eighth floor of the downtown garage adjacent to her firm The police rule her death a suicide and move on However Stanley Plotkin the law firmxs eccentric mailroom clerk is sure that Sari was murdered Stanley a genius afflicted with Aspergerxs Syndrome cannot read emotions from otherxs facial expressions To compensate he studies the voluminous facial action coding system to help him navigate social situations His mastery of that system has convinced him that Sari was not suicidal Armed with evidence that only he can see he turns to Rachel for help Rachel had been close with Sari who worked for her during law school She also knows Stanley because their mothers are friends When he calls Sarixs death murder as Rachel drives him home from Sarixs memorial service she listens And when Sarixs grieving father pleads with Rachel to review the police file on his daughterxs suicide she reluctantly though with consummate skill and deploying unlikely colleagues starts an investigation that will lead into the heart of a dark criminal enterprise rife with collateral damage Like Sarix.