Sunday, 11 December 2011

Book ~ "Try Fear" (2009) James Scott Bell

From Amazon ~ Poet. Teacher. Warrior. The best trial lawyers are all three at once, observes Ty Buchanan in Bell's good-natured third suspense novel to feature the quixotic L.A. lawyer who lives in a trailer and provides legal services at St. Monica's, a little Benedictine community. When Buchanan defends a client who insists on fighting a DUI charge despite the score the client registered on the Intoximeter, he fulfills the teacher function by giving the attractive prosecuting attorney, Kimberly Pincus, a lesson she'll never forget. He turns warrior after an anonymous e-mailer's ominous threats to Sister Mary Veritas, a sparky St. Monica's nun, escalate. And poetically, Buchanan, uses a Beatles tune at a critical juncture. Bell infuses the legal maneuverings with enough humor, insight and intelligence to merit an exception to Shakespeare's admonition to kill all the lawyers.

I had started reading this a couple months ago and then put it aside about halfway through and read some other books.

I like books with continuing characters ... this is the third in this series. I thought this had possibility but it was actually was kind of blah. Hence my ability to put it aside for a while (I never do that) but I was interested enough to pick it back up and finish it.

There are a few plots in this story, a main one being the murder of client Ty had defended on the DUI charge. Just when you think this plot is over, it's not.

None of the characters really grabbed me. Ty's investigator is Sister Mary and they have feelings for each other (another plot). As expected, this is a conflict for Sister Mary.

It's not a bad book, just not a great one, and I won't be rushing out to read the rest in this series.

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