Book Review: CLAIM OF INNOCENCE by Laura Caldwell

CLAIM OF INNOCENCE

by Laura Caldwell

Pub. Date: August 2011

Publisher: Mira

Format: Mass Market Paperback , 448pp

ISBN-13: 9780778329329

ISBN: 0778329321

Description (from the publisher):

Forbidden relationships are the most tempting. And the most dangerous.

It was a crime of passion–or so the police say. Valerie Solara has been charged with poisoning her best friend. The prosecution claims she's always been secretly attracted to Amanda's husband…and with Amanda gone, she planned to make her move.
 
Attorney Izzy McNeil left the legal world a year ago, but a friend's request pulls her into the murder trial. Izzy knows how passion can turn your life upside down. She thought she had it once with her ex–fiance, Sam. Now she wonders if that's all she has in common with her criminally gorgeous, younger boyfriend, Theo.

It's Izzy's job to present the facts that will exonerate her client–whether or not she's innocent. But when she suspects Valerie is hiding something, she begins investigating–and uncovers a web of secret passions and dark motives, where seemingly innocent relationships can prove poisonous…

My Rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars - an entertaining and fast-paced legal and romantic thriller

My Thoughts:  I like a good thriller now and then. Sometimes they're just what I need to cleanse my reading palate as I transition from one historical period to another or after an especially gut-wrenching memoir. Laura Caldwell's CLAIM OF INNOCENCE caught me at just the right time. I found it to be a pleasantly engaging light read.

CLAIM OF INNOCENCE is actually the fourth book in the Izzy McNeil series, though it was the first one that I read. I didn't find myself at much of a disadvantage picking up the series at this point. It's not that different than filling in a new friend's backstory. On the other hand, I do prefer reading a series in order just so certain subplots aren't spoiled.


In this installment, Izzy deals with a number of personal issues as well as the main story line - defending a woman accused of killing her best friend. She's torn between reuniting with her ex-fiance (clearly one of those aforementioned subpots) and developing a deeper commitment with her new, much younger lover; her long-dead father isn't so dead after all; her mother seems ambivilent about her own marriage, and her stepfather, the only real father she has ever known, is leaning on Izzy for counsel and support.

While it might be a bit of a stretch for an attorney to jump right into criminal defense without prior experience, this is fiction, and let's face it, escapist fiction at that. Izzy is dedicated and observent, and she's able to form a bond with the defendant that her co-counsel cannot. Despite this bond, and though Izzy believes the woman is innocent, she knows there's more to this case than meets the eye and she's determined to get to the truth.

I liked Izzy. She's smart and has a strong individualistic streak. (Besides dating a much younger guy, she drives around Chicago on a scooter!) I really liked her young boyfriend, Theo. Frankly, I wouldn't be giving the ex-fiance a second thought if Theo was in my life. ;-) I wasn't crazy about the ex-fiance, the not-dead father, or the killer (guess I wasn't supposed to like the killer anyway!).  I don't know that I'd go back and read previous books in the series because now I know too much, but I would read future installments and I'd also like to check out a few of Caldwell's stand-alone novels, especially THE GOOD LIAR.

I enjoyed this book. I'd recommend CLAIM OF INNOCENCE if you're looking for a good, basic legal thriller that will entertain you but not strain your brain.

Click here to read Chapter One.

Click here to visit the author's website.

About the author (from the publisher):
Laura Caldwell, a former trial lawyer, is currently a professor and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Her first book, Burning the Map, was selected by BarnesandNoble.com as one of the best of 2002. The releases of A Clean Slate, The Year of Living Famously and The Night I Got Lucky prompted Booklist to declare, "Caldwell is one of the most talented and inventive—writers around." Her mysteries, Look Closely and The Rome Affair, received critical acclaim, and her international thriller, The Good Liar, was called "a massive achievement." She has been published in ten languages and more than twenty countries.

The Izzy McNeil series:


1. RED HOT LIES



2. RED BLOODED MURDER




3. RED, WHITE & DEAD



I read this book as part of the R.I.P. VI Challenge.

• Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review purposes only. No monetary consideration was exchanged for my honest opinion.

Audio Book Giveaway and Review: DON'T BLINK by James Patterson and Howard Roughan; Read by David Patrick Kelly

CLOSED.

Thanks to the thrill-loving folks at
Hachette Book Group,

I have been authorized to
 give away three (3) audio book copies of

DON'T BLINK
by James Patterson and Howard Roughan.

Rules for entering this giveaway
are at the bottom of this post.

DON'T BLINK

by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

read by David Patrick Kelly

Publisher: Hachette Audio
Category: Fiction, Suspense & Thrillers
Format: Audio Book
Subformat: CD (Audio)
Edition: Unabridged
Publish Date: 9/27/2010
Price: $34.98/$39.98
ISBN: 9781607882343
Pages: 0

Description (from the publisher):
New York's Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons--the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Effortlessly, the assassin slips through the police's fingers, and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit.

Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels is conducting a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy. Shocked and shaken, he doesn't realize that he's accidentally captured a key piece of evidence. Ensnared in the city's most sensational crime in years, Nick investigates for a story of his own. Back off--or die--is the clear message as he closes in on the facts. Heedless, and perhaps in love, Nick endures humiliation, threats, violence, and worse in a thriller that overturns every expectation and finishes with the kind of flourish only James Patterson knows.

Click here to listen to an excerpt.

My Rating:  3.5 stars out of 5 - More thrilling than predictable.

My Thoughts:  I think Patterson is generally a love 'im or hate 'im kind of author. Some readers can't get enough; others can't get far enough away. Myself, I actually sit on the fence. I crave a good thriller now and then, but generally rush through them so fast that I feel rather empty and let down once I'm done. And I feel guilty the whole time I'm reading them because I can't put them down but think I should be doing something more worthwhile. Then there's the fact that they can be formulaic - you KNOW the main character will survive no matter how nail-biting the tension. So, I end up not reading as many thrillers as I'm really interested in.

Audio books have been the perfect solution for me.  I get my thriller fix while driving to and from work - no reason to feel guilty because I CAN'T be doing anything else; and I can't rush through them because I'm not the one doing the reading!

I had a great time listening to the audio book version of DON'T BLINK by James Patterson and Howard Roughan. The authors don't blaze any new trails here, but they do assemble all the essential componants of a good thriller with an entertaining and humorous flair. The authors serve up a wise-cracking hero who can't help but find himself in desperate trouble; gruesomely horrible bad guys (and plenty of them); innocents held hostage; suspenseful twists and turns; and the hint of romance to provide a ray of hope and sunshine.

If you like Patterson, you're sure to enjoy DON'T BLINK. If you're new to his writing, this is a great place to begin.

The audio book runs approximately 7 hours. One caveat:  if you listen while you're driving, be aware that the last half of the last CD contains traffic noises - horns blowing, sirens, etc. - that sound convincingly like the real thing!


About the authors (from the publisher):
James Patterson is one of the bestselling writers of all time, with more than 170 million books sold worldwide. He is the author of the top-selling detective series of the past twenty years--the Alex Cross novels, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, both of which were made into hit movies. Mr. Patterson also writes the bestselling Women's Murder Club novels, set in San Francisco, and the new series of #1 New York Times bestsellers featuring Detective Michael Bennett of the NYPD. He won an Edgar Award, the mystery world's highest honor, for his first novel. He lives in Florida. Click here to visit his website. 

James Patterson's lifelong passion for books and reading led him to launch a new Web site, ReadKiddoRead.com, which helps parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians find the very best children's books for their kids.

Howard Roughan cowrote Honeymoon and Sail with James Patterson and is the author of The Promise of a Lie and The Up and Comer. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and son. Click here to visit his website.

RULES FOR ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY:

• Leave an original comment on this post telling me you would like to win. Include an email address with your comment so that I can contact you if you do win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com or geebee.reads [at] gmail [dot] com

• You must leave an email address in order to qualify. If I can't contact you, you can't win!

• You can earn an extra entry by being or becoming a Follower or Subscriber of this blog and telling me about it in a separate comment.

• Blog about this contest and provide me with the link to the post in a separate comment, and I'll give you yet another entry.

• Tweeting about this contest and providing me the link in a separate comment will get you one more entry. I've added a Retweet button at the bottom of every post.

• Stumble this blog, Digg it, or Technorati Fave it, whatever, and leave a separate comment for another entry.

• Winners must provide a U.S. or Canadian street address. Hachette is unable to deliver to P.O. Boxes.

• PLEASE NOTE: One win per household. If you win this title in another contest hosted at another blog, Hachette will only send one copy per household address.

• Deadline for entry is 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, November 19, 2010.

• Winners will have 48 hours to respond to my email announcing that they have won; if I don't hear from a winner, I will draw another name.

• Winners are determined using the sequence generator at Random.org.

Thank you to Anna
at Hachette Book Group

for making this giveaway possible.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

Blog Tour and Book Review #49: THE REMAINS by Vincent Zandri

THE REMAINS

by Vincent Zandri

Pub. Date: November 30, 2010

Publisher: StoneHouse Ink

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9780982770504

ISBN: 0982770502

Description (from the publisher):
Thirty years ago, teenager Rebecca Underhill and her twin sister Molly were abducted by a man who lived in a house in the woods behind their upstate New York farm. They were held inside that house for three horrifying hours, until making their daring escape.

Vowing to keep their terrifying experience a secret in order to protect their mother and father, the girls tried to put the past behind them. And when their attacker was hunted down by police and sent to prison, they believed he was as good as dead.

Now, it’s 30 years later, and with Molly having passed away from cancer, Rebecca, a painter and art teacher, is left alone to bear the burden of a secret that has only gotten heavier and more painful with each passing year.

But when Rebecca begins receiving some strange anonymous text messages, she begins to realize that the monster who attacked her all those years ago is not dead after all. He’s back, and this time, he wants to do more than just haunt her. He wants her dead.

My rating:  4 out of 5 Stars -- a thrilling thriller!

My thoughts:  I love a good thriller. You know what I mean -- the kind you can't put down. The ones where you keep saying "Just one more chapter . . ." while the the bath overflows, the roast cooks to stone, the sun sinks lower and lower, and the moon starts to rise. And the next day at work you're all bleary eyed and bored -- but the killer has been caught, the heroine is safe, and all is right with the world again. My problem is that as I've gotten older and more experienced, it's harder to find stories that provide that old "thrill." In an effort to hold readers' interests, some authors keep upping the ante by divising increasingly gory, sadistic, and ridiculously complex tortures for their victims to suffer. I say, Give me a break! When I read a thriller, I want a good, believable story -- a protagonist who is intelligent but nonetheless vulnerable; a villian who is cleverly malicious but not maniacally insane. I like a story that I think could actually happen. What I want is a good cat and mouse game where the mouse ultimately bells the cat.

I found such a story with THE REMAINS by Vincent Zandri. There may not be much in the story description that sets it apart from run-of-the-mill thrillers, but it is solidly written with interesting and plausible characters and a story line that kept me flipping through the pages late into the night. I liked Rebecca, the heroine, and found her backstory to be fascinating and believable. As a young teenager, she and her twin sister were abused and traumatized when they were trapped in an isolated and abandoned house for several hours by a serial killer. Thirty years later, her twin has passed away from cancer, her marriage has failed, and her career as an artist is flatlining. The girls never told anyone about their ordeal and so Rebecca still suffers the reprecussions of that terrifying experience, making her all the more vulnerable.

When she begins receiving mysterious text messages, Rebecca finally begins to connect with her ex-husband in a way she never could while they were married. She also receives help and support from her childhood neighbors, an artistic savant, Francis, and his mother. Turns out that Francis knows more about the danger Rebecca is facing than he's able to verbalize. With Francis, Zandri has created a fascinating and sympathetic portrait of an autistic adult.

I totally enjoyed THE REMAINS and plan to read more of Mr. Zandri's novels. Of course, I fully expected Rebecca to survive, but wondering who else would make it out alive -- and how -- kept me completely focused to the last page.  If you like a good thriller, THE REMAINS is a highly entertaining read.  Just start it early on a day you have nothing else to do - you won't get anything else done anyway!
   
The paperback version of THE REMAINS won't be released until the fall, but you can purchase the Kindle version for $2.99 by clicking here.

Click here for a special excerpt and to view the trailer.

Click here to visit the author's website.

Thank you to Dorothy at

Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours

for organizing this tour and supplying my review copy.