I think I might actually like crime stories… I really enjoyed the last one I read, but man alive, Kate Wilhelm’s A Wrongful Death really cemented that fact for me. Now I’m going to have to find some more.
(while we’re at it, here’s the link to my vlog!)
So, the story follows Barbara Holloway and her father Frank who are both criminal defense attorneys as they get mixed up in some corporate legal shenanigans that, wait for it, involve murder! That’s right. The Kurtz and Diedricks family’s prosthetics company might get sold after the VP dies, and young Terry Kurtz recruits his beautiful ex-wife Elizabeth to help him find certain legal documents before his (kinda crazy) mom finds them. But when they split up, Elizabeth finds even more damning documents and takes off to the West with her son to hide from her crazy-ex-mother-in-law.
And then she dies.
Twice.
Or does she?
Oh, and even though Barbara has the abismal luck to happen upon both of Elizabeth’s deaths, she a) has no idea who this woman is and b) is suspected by local police to be involved!
That was some serious dramatic irony that was a large part of why it was so captivating and hard to put down. The plot was great, the characters were developed, and just all around, it was a really good read.
My only complaint is the lack of the Oxford comma. Just kidding… well kind of, Wilhelm doesn’t use it, and I’m personally a fan. But seriously though, it’s a solid story and I am really tempted to check out the other books in the Barbara Holloway series.
Wilhelm is so descriptive and knows how to use that dramatic irony so well that she paints a picture in readers’ minds. It was like watching a legal show like “Law and Order,” or at least what I imagine it would be like, seeing as I haven’t seen the show…
But it’s so descriptive and well done that you don’t want to keep reading just because you want to find out if the stubborn police find the truth. You want to keep reading because you care about the characters–you want to find out how it was that Elizabeth traveled across the country virtually undetected for weeks. You want to know if Barbara is actually going to be arrested. You want to know if Sarah Kurtz is really as crazy and evil as her son and Elizabeth think she might be… (imho, she is).
If you like legal/crime thrillers, this is a book worth checking out. If you think you might be interested or are looking for a new genre, pick it up and go for it. It’s captivating and not corny, you’re almost assured to enjoy it.
That’s all I’ve got for this week! I’ll be reading Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson next week, so look out for that blog and vlog.
Happy Reading!
A Little Bit of Happiness 