Sunday, April 26, 2015

A Legal Thriller with at Least One Eccentric Character

Lisa and Joe Stone are law partners. They have an easy life practicing law in a Virginia small town, no children, but a lovable dog, Brownie. After twenty years, Lisa is becoming restless. She loves Joe, but what's exciting about small town legal work. In addition, Joe is such a push over, he takes on eccentric clients for little pay, like Lettie VanStandt. Lettie is constantly making wills, trusts and corporations. She also fancies herself as someone able to communicate with animals and is constantly developing potionpotions.

Lisa tries not to mind Joe's habits, but she's restless which leads to dabbling in an affair with a colleague, Brett Brooks. Nothing serious happens, but now Lisa is ridden with guilt. Her guilt becomes worse when Lettie is murdered and Joe, cited in her new will as her heir, becomes involved with murder and shady drug company deals.

Everyone in this plot lies, except Joe. He's the perfect guy to be setup because he's so honest. I enjoyed the plot, but found the amount of time devoted to the domestic arrangements of the Stones distracting. The plot doesn't really start until about a third of the way through the book when Lettie is murdered and Lisa and Joe are caught up in the investigation.

I found the characters more interesting in the opening chapters. As the novel progressed, I found myself not liking Lisa very much. I thought the affair with Brett was contrived to give an additional plot line to the story and to give Lisa a reason for being involved.

I thought the ending was equally contrived. As a legal thriller, I found it difficult to believe the way the court, and particularly the bar association behaved. It's not a bad read, if you enjoy legal drama, but I can't recommend it as one of the best.

I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vine Program.


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