|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
If there were a Pulitzer Prize for shopping, Finley Tanner would be the hands-down winner. Whether she's trolling eBay, a discount outlet, or a place with slightly damaged goods, she's like a hunting dog in her pursuit of a bargain. To underwrite this mania, she works as a paralegal in a prestigious Palm Beach (Florida) law firm. One day, her relatively humdrum world comes to an end when a partner in the firm, Victor Dane (who Finley thinks of as "Vain Dane") drops on her the case of a widow, Stacy Evans, one of the firm's better clients, who is convinced that her husband, killed in an automobile accident, was murdered. Finley has the thankless task of convincing this obstreperous client that her husband's death was indeed an accident. Marcus Evans had been a juror in a malpractice case that Finley's firm successfully defended three years ago. Strangely, two of the other jurors have died within the last three months – a landscape gardener and Graham Keller, who died of a heart attack at the intermission of an opera. Against the wishes of the partner in the firm (who wants the whole thing to go away), Finley persists in her investigation, after becoming convinced that Stacy was right and that Marcus was indeed murdered. And as she delves further, Finley realizes that the two other jurors were murdered as well. Finley is endearing as she negotiates the shoals of shopping, snooping, and choosing between two men -- the reliable, thoughtful pilot, Patrick, and the roguish Irish PI Liam, for whom she lusts immoderately – and her posse of friends, all well developed as is her mother, now in search of husband number six. All is well in terms of pace, of character until the very end when the book just stops. It doesn't conclude. With one exception, we have no idea how the murderer had access to the victims. With one exception, we have no idea what the murderer's motive was. Well, we have some idea, but it really only holds true for one victim. We can only wish Finley luck with her many conflicts.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, October 2007
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
