LOCAL FAVORITE: New York Times bestselling author James Grippando delivers Blood Money (Harper, $26.99) -- a powerful, nonstop thrill ride ripped from the headlines. The nation is obsessed with Sydney Bennett accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter for cramping her party life. When he had agreed to defend Sydney, Jack Swyteck knew he'd be taking on the toughest and most controversial case of his career. When the verdict of not guilty is announced, citizens across the country are outraged. On the night of Sydney's release, an angry mob outside the jail has gathered to serve its own justice. In the frenzy, an innocent young woman bearing a striking resemblance to the reviled Sydney Bennett ends up in a coma. Searching for the truth about what happened that night, Jack makes a frightening discovery. Larger and much more powerful forces are working in the shadows, and what happened outside the jail is a symptom of an evil that infected the show-stopping trial and media-spun phenomenon of Sydney Bennett.