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OPEN SEASON ON LAWYERS
by Taffy Cannon
Perseverance Press, April 2002
288 pages
$13.95
ISBN: 1880284510


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Finally, someone is taking to heart Shakespeare's "advice": The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. A Los Angeles man, who calls himself "Ace," is doing just that. His hatred of the profession originated with a sleazy lawyer in his home town, a man who assured his (Ace's) mother that he would take care of everything after Ace's father died. Instead, he left her impoverished, and she committed suicide six months later.

Now her son has "established" the Legal Resolution Program, intended to rub out lawyers who have not, in his opinion, served the cause of justice. His aim is to "be a force of retribution for the powerless who have suffered unfairly." He not only bumps off the lawyers who, he thinks, have not done their jobs, he chooses methods tailored to the lawyer's misdeed. For example, lawyer Bill Burke had won a case in which he defended a caterer who was being sued for an outbreak of food poisoning at a wedding reception, a poisoning that led to two fatalities. Burke is killed by botulism poisoning.

Pursuing the criminal, christened the "Atterminator," is a squad of the LAPD led by Joanna Davis, a 52-year-old twice divorced grandmother. In addition to the case, Joanna must grapple with issues in her personal life, including a cancer scare. She seeks the advice of her first husband, the father of her two children, and a man she still loves. Their marriage broke up over -- weather. She could not live in Minnesota with its cold climate and long, dark days, and he couldn't tolerate the sunny warmth of Los Angeles.

Even though there are eight murders, this book is rightly called "A Novel of Suspense." The first half of the book's suspense is whether the police will be able to identify the "Atterminator." In the second half they confront the difficulty of finding the "Atterminator," now that they know who he is. Interestingly, in both cases, civilians provide the solution. One woman recognizes the "Atterminator" from a picture circulated in the national press. Two other recognize the object of the sketch as the manager of their building.

Cannon does a masterful job of alternating scenes of the "Atterminator" with scenes of the LAPD, frustrated in its inability to solve the case. The frustration of the police is played off against the arrogant assurance of the "Atterminator" that he is invincible. Cannon adroitly manipulates the reader as we vacillate between almost admiring the "Atterminator" as he brings down the rich, cocky attorneys and sympathy with Joanna Davis as she attempts to stop the killing spree.

Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, March 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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