A taut, nail-biting courtroom drama.
In journalist and law professor Bazelon’s tense fiction debut, a young woman goes on trial for the stabbing murder of her soldier husband.
Hard-charging Los Angeles federal public defense attorney Abby Rosenberg is due to give birth any time now, but her new case already has her hooked. Nineteen-year-old Luz Rivera Hollis was taken into custody at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany and sent back to LA after supposedly stabbing her husband, Sgt. Travis Hollis, to death. Luz has been charged with first-degree murder, but Abby isn’t quite sure that her client grasps the gravity of the situation; all she cares about is getting to be with her 2-month-old daughter, Cristina. Abby manages to get the judge to set bail and release Luz to her grandmother, and then she's off on maternity leave. Abby’s new baby son is a delight, but she chafes at the monotony of sleepless nights and feedings, and she angers her partner, Nic Mulvaney, by announcing that she wants to go back to work early. She’s not about to hand over control of Luz’s case to Will Ellet, a wet-behind-the-ears former JAG attorney with 19th-century views on womanhood, but she does have to partner with him, and he makes it crystal clear what he thinks of her decision to come back early. As Abby and Will prepare the enigmatic Luz for trial, their personal lives begin to fall apart. Bazelon knows her way around a courtroom and unfolds one surprise after another while deftly exploring motherhood and the often crushing expectations that come with raising a family, not to mention the condescending treatment of women in a largely male workplace. Abby sees herself in Luz, who is willing to do anything to protect her little girl, but was her action self-defense or coldblooded murder?
A taut, nail-biting courtroom drama.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-335-91609-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
“People love violence—from a distance,” reflects the protagonist. This one’s for readers who can love it up close.
A bereaved mother’s year of sleepless nights is turned even more dire by percolating revelations about her past and present.
Isabelle Drake, a lifestyle reporter for The Grit who turned freelancer so that she could marry Grit publisher Ben Drake without raising too many eyebrows, hasn’t slept through the night since her 18-month-old son, Mason, was snatched from his crib as his parents snoozed a few yards away. She’s been so tireless in pursing leads, even breaking the nose of a supermarket cashier she suddenly learned had a record, that Det. Arthur Dozier of the Savannah Police Department has tuned her out and warned her off the case. Exhausted from touring true-crime conventions across the region, publicizing the tale of her lost boy and the breakup of her marriage that followed, Isabelle agrees to tell her story at length to podcaster Waylon Spencer so that he can spread it more widely while she searches for sleep. But his questions are so unsettling that she begins to wonder if she was the one responsible for Mason’s disappearance—and what her role might have been in a family calamity more than 20 years earlier that was likely papered over because her father was a South Carolina congressman from a long line of congressmen. The windup is anything but tidy, for the multiple mysteries end up requiring multiple culprits. No matter: Willingham is so relentless in linking Isabelle’s sleeplessness to her deepening sense of waking nightmare that fans can expect some seriously sleepless nights themselves.
“People love violence—from a distance,” reflects the protagonist. This one’s for readers who can love it up close.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-2508-0385-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A compelling take on the classic whodunit.
The shocking murder of a public figure at a high-end hotel has everyone guessing who the culprit might be.
Twenty-five-year-old Molly Gray, an eccentric young woman who's obsessed with cleaning but doesn't quite have the same ability to navigate social cues as those around her, loves working as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. Raised by her old-fashioned grandmother, who loved nothing more than cleaning and watching Columbo reruns, Molly has an overly polite and straightforward manner that can make her seem odd and off-putting to her colleagues despite her being the hardest worker at the hotel. After her grandmother's death, Molly's rigid life begins to lose some of its long-held balance, and when the infamous Mr. Charles Black, a rich and powerful businessman suspected of various criminal enterprises, is found murdered in one of the rooms she cleans, her whole world gets turned upside down. Before Molly knows what's happening, her odd demeanor has the police convinced she's guilty of the crime, and certain people at the hotel are a little too pleased about it. With the help of a few new friends (and while fending off new foes), she must begin to untangle the mystery of who really killed Mr. Black to get herself off the hook once and for all. Though the unusual ending might frustrate some readers, this unique debut will keep them reading.
A compelling take on the classic whodunit.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35615-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
