This is the ninth book in this series of good legal thrillers set in the USA.
These books always have crisp titles which introduce one important theme of
each book. The theme here is the Third Strike law in California - if a person
is convicted of two serious crimes and then found guilty of a third crime he
or she automatically receives a prison sentence of 25 years to life. Attorney
Nina Reilly assists Klaus Pohlmann in defending the young man in this situation
who is accused of murder. As Nina muses at one point, she can deal with other
people’s problems effectively but not those affecting her own private life.
She is a tenacious attorney coping with an inadequately prepared brief, a fellow
lawyer who seems to be reaching senility, an unhappy teenage son and momentous
decisions about marriage and moving her home and business to Carmel from Lake
Tahoe. The case becomes more and more complex - as she says at one point, ‘I
feel like we’re missing a layer of meaning here.’ The story is fascinating with
ramifications stretching back into the Russian Revolution and it is well resolved.
Courtroom scenes are, as always in Perri O’Shaughnessy books, absolutely convincing.
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Jennifer Palmer
4 previous books of this series are available from the UK publisher - Move
to Strike, Writ of Execution, Unfit to Practice and Presumption of Death.
These are the most recent books about Nina Reilly; there are 5 earlier books
- Motion to Suppress, Invasion of Privacy, Obstruction of Justice, Breach
of Promise and Acts of Malice.