Under Fire by Margaret McLean

A superb courtroom drama with volatile emotional context is the theme of this book.

Sarah Lynch is an attorney is not practicing law, she is playing hockey.   As  this book takes place in Boston, her career change is not seen as terribly radical.   She had a bad experience that is alluded to but never explained.   Her eccentric Uncle Buddy Clancy, worried over her state of mind, entices her to the dark side, that of defending an accused criminal rather than the prosecution side she once practiced. 

Buddy Clancy would top the list of interesting people anyone has encountered.   He and his golden retriever, Rehnquist, both sport bow ties and both have a sweet tooth.   The case is fraught with current topics and undertones of intolerance.   The accused is a African Muslim who is regarded by the community as an “Arab” in the worse sense.   She is accused of killing a fireman who was attempting to rescue her from her burning store.

The plot is complicated and believable.   The current emotional attitude toward anyone different, particularly any one that can be considered related to terrorism, weighs heavily on all of the characters.   Greed, redevelopment and the pedestal fireman now occupy fill out the emotional provocative aspects of the book.

This was a very good book and an outstanding courtroom drama. 

I highly recommend it.

Body of  work of Margaret McLean </a>

Web Site: http://www.margaretmclean.com/

Thou Shalt Kill by Daniel Blake

This is a complex and compelling murder mystery set in Pittsburgh, PA.

Growing up in western Pennsylvania, I found the setting for this story quite interesting.   It is always fun to be able to picture exactly where the author is taking you.   That is not to take away from Blake’s descriptions.  He did a good job describing both the environment and the people.   For Pittsburghers, the Steelers are not so much a sports team as a life style cult.   I haven’t been in Pittsburgh for 15 years and yet I have a Steeler sticker on my car, I have a terrible towel, black and gold scarves, more Steeler ball caps than I can count, Steeler head covers for my golf clubs a Steeler swim suit and more and I don’t even live there any more.   Black captured the essence of the community quite accurately. 

The characters were believable as were their motivations.   The emotional vacuums in the protagonist’s lives were clearly responsible for their aberrant behavior.

The story line was clear but complex so it kept your interest and never got boring.   Current events were incorporated to provide a very up to date feel for the setting.   Daniel Blake did an excellent job with this book. 

I highly recommend the book.

Body of work of Daniel Blake

Web site:  Did not find one.  

Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgo

Sacred Stone was ok. The story was entertaining but if you weren’t already familiar with a lot of the characters, you would be uncertain of their identity. The book read choppy. The chapters were often very, very short, as in one or two pages. The premise was excellent but the delivery was less than elegant. Dirk Pitt was supplanted by Juan Cabrillo, chairman of the Corporation. The Corporation is a multi-tasking band of mercenaries with good hearts. They are pro-USA but will work with some of our allies. They have close ties to the government and often receive sub-contracts from organizations like the CIA. Actually the subcontracting theme infused a sense of realism to the story considering recent government and corporate behavior. The book is worth reading, the premise is altogether too likely but this book isn’t up to the Cussler standard of excellence.

Body of work of Clive Cussler

Review of the book: http://www.cusslermen.com/SacredStone.htm

His site: http://www.cusslerbooks.com/