Browsing the Bookshelves

no entries really since we got back from Brazil.  Too busy Bookcrossing, working, playing and enjoying the last few warm days before the autumn rain sets in.

Okay, so this is just a quick review - but then the book was a quick read.

Perri O'Shaughnessy (actually the pen name of two sisters who write together) has put together a compulsive and intriguing courtroom drama.  Nina O'Reilly is a sassy, intelligent and attractive young lawyer, recalled to her home town to help with one of the cases of her former mentor.  It is by turns ghoulish - the felon she is defending dug up the grave of an old man only to find the body of a young women has been buried there recently as well - and tantalising - especially when the plot delves into the intrigues and conspiracies surrounding the assassination of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia and his family nearly 100 years earlier.

This is the first novel featuring Nina O'Reilly that I have read but it is the tenth in which she has featured. That was perhaps a mistake on my part: I found the sub-plot surrounding her relations with family and friends, and especially her hot and cold affair with her private investigator lover, distracting rather than fulfilling. Long time fans of Nina O'Reilly may feel very differently.

Written with real pace and verve, the plot of Unlucky in Law is page-turningly compelling.  However, I found most of the characters weak and stereotypical.  O'Shaughnessy offers little in terms of character development and for the most part each acts in predictable ways.  The most interesting character is Klaus - Nina's boss - who vacillates between brilliance and senility.  Nevertheless, he elicits more sympathy than the rest of the cast put together.

Unlucky in Law is a good, entertaining read. It's written to a formula that most fans of crime fiction and courtroom drama will recognise - and many will be comfortable with that. But don't expect any novel surprises.

A copy of this review of Unlucky in Law in Perri O'Shaughnessy can also be read on our website.

"The First Book: Go ahead, it won't bite. Well... maybe a little. More a nip, like. A tingle. It's pleasurable, really. You see, it keeps on opening. You may fall in. Sure, it's hard to get started; remember learning to use knife and fork? Dig in: you'll never reach bottom. It's not like it's the end of the world - just the world as you think you know it."

Rita Dove, Poet Laureate of the US 1993-1995

"A book is not harmless merely because no one is consciously offended by it."

T.S. Eliot