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Law Prof

Name: Law Prof
Author: Kenney F. Hegland
ISBN: 978-1492962694

by Kenney F. Hegland ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2014

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A lighthearted tale that’s more of a law primer than a courtroom drama.
Hegland (Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law in a Nutshell, 2014, etc.), a professor emeritus of law at the University of Arizona, has penned numerous academic books about the law, but this is his first effort at fiction. Hewing closely to his area of expertise, he’s made the protagonist a law professor as well, and his jocular narrative dwells less on the human element than on complex legal nuances. The unnamed protagonist, variously referred to as “Dad,” “Pops” and even “Dearie,” is the proud father of two daughters: Gina, a cop, and Jamie, a defense lawyer. Jamie picks up a new case outside her wheelhouse—a wrongful death suit—and solicits her father’s help in litigating it. The case itself is fraught with difficulties: A 13 year-old girl’s mother is killed by a defective furnace, and the daughter is later raped while under the care of Child Protective Services. Can she sue CPS for exposing her to sexual assault? Is the manufacturer of the furnace legally liable for her mother’s death? Can they hold the appliance store that sold her the furnace accountable? The narrator considers these and many other legal and philosophical questions, such as whether cops can lie to suspects in order to extract confessions from them. (At one point, the book even asks if Pringles count as potato chips under the law.) Hegland’s tone is often wry and ironic, more self-deprecating than didactic: “We take a job, Orwell wrote, put on a professional mask, and soon our face grows to fit it. He should have added, and probably did, maybe it was implicit, that we should ask ourselves if we like that face.” That said, the prose’s glibness sometimes conflicts with the darkness of the primary case. However, the novel manages to be consistently edifying and entertaining overall.
A crisp, intellectually enlightening legal novel.

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2014

ISBN: 978-1492962694

Page Count: 182

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: July 29, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.