Review by Booklist Review
Second-year Harvard law student Rachel North and her husband, hotshot Boston defense lawyer Jack Kirkland, plan to go into practice together after she graduates, with both eventually serving on the state's special ""murder list"" lawyers qualified to handle homicide cases for indigent clients. But when North is selected by cutthroat prosecutor Martha Gardiner as one of her summer interns, Kirkland who considers Gardiner Satan in pearls protests, while North sees it as an opportunity to gain knowledge about the enemy. As the narrative moves between the viewpoints of Kirkland, Gardiner, and North (in the first-person), flashbacks describe North's previous work for State Senator Tom Rafferty, on whom she had a crush, and her service on the jury for a case Kirkland lost, which led to their meeting. Turns out Gardiner had her own particular reasons for choosing North as an intern, as a closing plot twist shows. A compelling legal thriller from the popular author of the Jane Ryland mystery series, this will have readers' sympathies shifting from one character to another as it winds to an unsettling end.--Michele Leber Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Early in this disappointing legal thriller from Mary Higgins Clark Award winner Ryan (the Jane Ryland series), Harvard Law student Rachel North accepts an internship with Martha Gardiner, the first assistant district attorney of Middlesex County, Mass. This decision raises tensions with Rachel's husband, Jack Kirkland, a preeminent Boston defense attorney who recently lost a high-profile murder case to Martha. Martha throws Rachel into the middle of a fresh homicide case, the killing of nurse Tassie Lyle, implausibly having her take an active role in the investigation. The inquiry soon zeroes in on a pizza deliveryman who was a hospital patient of the victim's and who may have been working with her to sell drugs. The action is interrupted first by flashbacks to Rachel's previous life as a political aide to Thomas Rafferty, the president of the state senate, who stops by her apartment late at night to leave an envelope with her for safekeeping. More flashbacks reveal the unlikely start to Rachel's relationship with Jack. Details that don't ring true to life only accentuate the soap opera--ish plot, which builds to an unsatisfying ending. Ryan has done better and will do so again. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Second-year Harvard law student Rachel North dreams of being husband Jack's law partner in Kirkland and North, defending those accused of crimes and, when their turn comes up on the Murder List, defending suspects who cannot afford an attorney. When she takes a summer internship with Assistant DA Martha Gardiner, detested by Jack, Rachel puts herself in the middle, but she swears she's doing it to learn Martha's secrets. While Rachel's account of her internship unfolds in the present, the past is also essential to the story. Rachel was once chief of staff to Tom Rafferty, the president of the Massachusetts senate, until an office assistant's killing was followed by a scandalous arrest. Jack Kirkland handled the defense, a second battle Rachel witnessed in court between Martha and Jack. This masterly plotted legal thriller with a twisted ending offers a riveting, character-driven story in which none of the three storytellers, Rachel, Martha, or Jack, can be trusted to tell the whole truth. VERDICT Ryan's latest stand-alone (after Trust Me) is guilty of inciting shock and amazement at the author's skill in manipulating the reader and the characters. A must-read for fans of legal thrillers. [See Prepub Alert, 2/11/19.]--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The prosecutor's new intern is married to her greatest rival on the defense: a threesome built on secrets, lies, and corpses.Thirty-four Emmys, 14 Edgar R. Murrow awards, many prizes for mystery novels, and other honors...certainly investigative reporter and author Ryan's (Trust Me, 2018, etc.) past successes are impressive. Unfortunately, her latest legal procedural will not join them. At the center of it is an unrealistic and poorly developed character named Rachel North. Formerly an administrator in the office of a state senator she had the hots for (let's call him Stereotypical Older Male Character No.1), Rachel's first career was destroyed by a scandal that took down her boss as well. "What a novice I'd been then. Thirty and dumb. Well, thirty and inexperienced. Thirty and still discovering my goals. And my skills." Now it's six years later, and she's discovered those skills in a big wayshe's married a prominent defense attorney (Stereotypical Older Male Character No. 2), has been admitted to Harvard Law School, and, as the book opens, is beginning an internship in the office of the furiously driven, enormously powerful, ethically suspect district attorney (Sleek Female Suit No. 1) who happens to be her husband's sworn enemy. Clearly somebody is using somebody to get to somebody. Obviously, most suspense novels rely on keeping the reader in the dark about something. But a big, glaring omission in what is presented as first-person interior monologueas if the person is redacting their own thoughtsis one of the least impressive gambits. It is central here.If you like subtlety and interesting characters in your crime novels, look elsewhere. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
