SHEER GALL

by Michael A. Kahn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 1996

Sally Wade, Esq. (Sally Wade Associates), is already in the process of divorcing Neville McBride, Esq. (Tully, Crane & Leonard), when an unusual evening leads her to the office of Rachel Gold, Esq., to file a separate suit for assault and battery. She alleges that McBride, a longtime bondage enthusiast, used his old key to get into her place, beat her, and attempt rape; he maintains that he never had much interest in bondage, and, anyway, he was at his place that evening watching Monday Night Football. Sally's story gets a lot more convincing when the police find her spread-eagled, gagged, suffocated body decorated with a puddle of fluid that sure looks to the lab boys like McBride's. But McBride and his sleek defender, Jonathan Wolf, Esq., haven't given up. They offer to prove an alibi; they point out that Sally had never taken her injuries to the doctor, as Rachel had demanded; they ask (what gall!) whether Rachel's sure it was really Sally who came to her office in the first place. And this is only the beginning of an uproariously complex swindle involving every lawyer in St. Louis, a seam that will addle your brain in all the satisfying ways the killer's obvious identity won't. More sheer gall than you ever expected lifts Rachel's fifth case way above Due Diligence (1995) and up near the comic heights of Firm Ambitions (1994).

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 1996

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996

Categories: FICTION