A brisk tale with a surprisingly sympathetic protagonist who should be able to sustain another winning series.
Bernhardt (Justice Returns, 2017, etc.), known for his long-running Washington, D.C.–set Ben Kincaid courtroom-drama series, returns with a new attorney in a different city.
Lawyer Daniel Pike has always done things his own way, and that’s made him one of the top criminal defense attorneys in St. Petersburg, Florida. But when Daniel’s violent client Emilio Lòpez, whom he’d just saved from conviction, gets involved in a deadly shootout, the lawyer’s white-collar firm fires him. This leaves the arrogant attorney adrift, but then he meets an attractive woman named Maria Morales in a bar, and she invites him to a mysterious meeting. At that gathering, the shadowy “Mr. K” asks Daniel to join the Last-Chance Law Firm. His new associates include strategist Maria, researcher Garrett Wainwright, and facilitator Jimmy Armstrong. Daniel’s first case involves arranging the adoption of Esperanza Coto, a 9-year-old orphan who’s about to be deported to El Salvador. But this is complicated by the fact that Esperanza’s guardian, Gabriella Valdéz, has been charged with murder in the aforementioned shootout. As Daniel investigates the case, he learns that the woman is enmeshed in a much larger conspiracy. He’s going to need to solve this puzzle quickly to save Gabriella and Esperanza from grim fates. This novel is, first and foremost, about Daniel’s moral evolution. In the beginning, the self-centered attorney has no qualms about representing a “walking waste product” like Emilio; he even turns away a woman seeking help for her abused sister (”Too messy. Not profitable”). But as he takes up the cause of Esperanza and Gabriella, he comes to realize that the downtrodden have more urgent need of his services. Also, Bernhardt shows how Daniel was previously a lone wolf who felt that he didn’t have to answer to anyone, but, thanks to his Last-Chance Law Firm partners, he comes to appreciate the value of teamwork. Overall, the author’s narrative maintains a fast pace as Daniel discovers possible suspects before it reveals the unlikely killer.
A brisk tale with a surprisingly sympathetic protagonist who should be able to sustain another winning series.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948263-36-8
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Babylon Books
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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