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After 8 years of paying his dues by working hard as an attorney at the New York law firm of Ashley, Stepford & Simpson, Mark McCoy is being considered for partnership at the firm and a move closer to "Mahogany Row", the luxury offices inhabited by the movers and shakers of the firm. Unfortunately, his boss's body is discovered in Mark's office; and Mark is the prime suspect. Given the fact that everyone believes that he is the murderer, he is on his own in proving his innocence. His supposed motivation is revealed in a memo from his boss which recommends against Mark's being named a partner. He discovers that he does have one friend, a woman by the name of Sherry who is a member of the secretarial pool and who is willing to do some legwork to help find the real killer. She has some baggage of her own as far as the firm is concerned. Mark's first avenue of investigation is to look through some of the files in the office. As he peruses the files of one of the firm's main clients, a company by the name of Southgate, he finds that there's some funny business with the conflict of interest forms that are supposed to be filed for each Southgate case. When he looks into this further, another person is killed and he himself is targeted by a hit and run driver. The book is wonderfully paced, and the various characters well delineated with several possible suspects convincingly portrayed. Where the book fell apart for me was in its resolution. Keeley basically pulls the surprise rabbit in a hat trick and presents us with a murderer that could not be reasonably suspected by the reader. The epilogue contains a dreadful rendering of the actual murder which should have been edited out of the book since it was way over the top. This is a first book, and Keeley exhibited a lot of potential. With the exception of the conclusion of the book, it was a very enjoyable read. Although the book is labeled a "legal thriller" and had some legal details within it, it was really more of a standard mystery. Worth trying with the caveat that the ending doesn't work very well.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, May 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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