Tag Archives: legal

Where The Bodies Are Buried by Janet Dawson (1998) – BR00007 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
January 21 2001

Plot or Premise

Private Investigator Jeri Howard is back and she’s lost a client. Rob Lawter comes to Jeri and retains her services, tells her that he’ll brief her later, but then takes a header out of his apartment window — suicide, accident or murder? Jeri investigates and takes a job as a legal secretary (her previous employment) at the company where Rob worked as a paralegal. All she has is a determination to help her now-dead client and an anonymous threatening note he received warning him about “blowing the whistle”. Lots of people enter stage left, and most of them stick around for the duration making it hard for Jeri to pin them down. Was it one of the lawyers? Was it the corporate bigwigs who took over the company in a hostile takeover and are they going to take the company apart piece-by-piece? Was it the plant managers conspiring to hide some terrible secret? Was it the brother-in-law who is trying to convince everyone that Rob committed suicide? And what do Rob’s neighbours know about what happened that night?

What I Liked

There are no super-human powers of deduction shown here by Jeri. She is a plodder — one piece of the puzzle at a time, turning it around and around to see if it fits anywhere. And a lot of the time, she doesn’t know what to do with the pieces and doesn’t try to make them fit anywhere. The writing is up to Dawson’s normal first-rate level and it is particularly interesting to see how Jeri goes about her non-investigating tasks around the office. The office, and the office politics, are made real by describing Jeri’s experiences — all of them, including the rules for working the photocopier. They set the tone for the workplace and most writers would have left them out. Dawson includes them, and the story is better for having them.

What I Didn’t Like

Jeri can be a bit of a dunce at times. Several “clues” leap off the page at the reader, but Jeri misses them, or rather, completely misses their significance — at the time. There are a couple like that, so the reader knows where the story is going when Jeri apparently doesn’t, and it is only to the credit of Dawson’s writing that you don’t say “Hurry up and get there already.” However, at the end, Dawson doesn’t play fair — there are two “clues” that turn everything around for Jeri, the final pieces of the puzzle, and the reader doesn’t get to see them until the solution is revealed. “Foul!”, I cry.

The Bottom Line

Worth digging this one out for a read.

Fools, Knaves and Heroes: Great Political Short Stories by Jeffrey Archer and Simon Bainbridge (Editors) (1989) – BR00080 (2000) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 12 2000

Plot or Premise

This is a collection of short political stories from various famous authors dating back to the 1800s.

What I Liked

The best story of the collection is by Mark Twain, entitled The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (an interesting story of greed that corrupts an incorruptible town, prompted by a man wronged by the town). James Thurber’s story, The Greatest Man in the World, is a slightly different take on flying around the world, as a man flies non-stop while the media and public scramble to meet him and the government tries to hide the fact that his character isn’t that great. L.E. Jones’ story, The Bishop’s Aunt, focuses on occupied Eastern Europe during the war and questions of sacrifice, faith, martyrdom, and strategy. And Jeffrey Archer’s own story, The Coup, has two business rivals stranded in Nigeria during a coup, and having to resolve their differences.

What I Didn’t Like

Three stories were good, but not as good as the rest. Charles Dickens story, The Election for Beadle, tells the tale of an election for church Beadle, and two men fighting to elect their choice. Rudyard Kipling’s tale of The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat has a fight between a man and his buddies against a town that had a speed trap set to catch speeders. Finally, Saki’s tale of Ministers of Grace is a really strange tale of turning political animals into actual animals, and letting angels take their place.

The Bottom Line

Interesting collection, but uneven.

Double Jeopardy by William Bernhardt (1995) – BR00073 (2000) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 12 2000

Plot or Premise

Travis Byrne is having a hard time. He traded his badge for a law degree and now most cops hate him. His courtroom opponent thinks he’s scum since he switched sides. And to prove her point, he’s just been appointed lawyer for Al Moroconi — an all-round scumbag with mob ties.

What I Liked

Then Al breaks out of prison, shooting a guard in the process, and starts gunning for his lawyer who he thinks hasn’t done enough to help him. Add in the mob and some crooked FBI agents, and this story gets complicated real fast.

What I Didn’t Like

It has the feel of a fish-out-of-water TV-movie and never quite pays off.

The Bottom Line

A fairly light read.

The Midnight Before Christmas by William Bernhardt (1998) – BR00079 (2000) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 12 2000

Plot or Premise

Megan McGee is a 30-something lawyer facing a quiet Christmas with her dog when a new crying client, Bonnie Cantrell, comes asking for a restraining order.

What I Liked

The restraining order is against an abusive ex, Carl, who’s also an ex-cop, and Bonnie is worried for the safety of not only herself but also her son and her new lover. The story starts as a simple textbook case, but starts to morph as it becomes evident that while Carl is unhinged, perhaps Bonnie isn’t telling the whole truth.

What I Didn’t Like

A thread of Christmas presents runs through the story showing that sometimes little miracles do happen, but it’s rather cliché.

The Bottom Line

A surprisingly light story given the dark nature of the case.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (1995) – BR00064 (1999) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
November 29 1999

Plot or Premise

This book introduces Stephanie Plum, a good girl down on her luck, who falls into bounty hunting to pick up some cash and avoid having to move back home. She lives in the suburbs of New Jersey, and dances around the question of whether she wants to bed Joe Morelli again — the local cop who stole her virginity when she was young and foolish, and then wrote about it on the bathroom walls and the stadium bleachers. She got revenge years later by almost running him down with a Buick. No cream puff here, she is also not exactly an expert at being a “fugitive apprehension agent”. More like an apprehensive agent, and the descriptions are hilarious.

What I Liked

Stephanie is supposed to find an elusive man — Joe Morelli! Yep, her cop foil and first love is wanted for allegedly shooting an unarmed suspect. Morelli claims there were other guys in the apartment, and there was a gun, but that doesn’t change the fact that Plum needs to bring him in to get the money. And she isn’t experienced enough to match wits with him for most of the book. But she has help from a lot of extra support characters — Ranger, the experienced bounty-hunter; Vincent, the bail bondsman; and Plum’s family.

What I Didn’t Like

Her grandmother is a little over the top but so are Lulu and Jackie, hookers in the downtown neighbourhood; and one seriously disturbed boxer, with a passion for hurting women.

The Bottom Line

Excellent first in the series.