Rose Connors

False Testimony was every bit as good as the earlier three in the series. I haven't seen any information that there are any more forthcoming, but I would certainly welcome another. Marty Nickerson is a sharp, empathetic, decidedly human defense attorney. Her relationships with her staff, her clients, her adversaries are sharply described and deftly handled by this talented author. In a story echoing a famous case in DC in the past several years, a US Senator is a "person of interest" in the show more disappearance of a young female aide. Several plot twists along with a very realistic dialogue make this one a winner. show less

Description
Marty and her lover, former Barnstable County public defender Harry Madigan, have plunged into private practice, taking on the controversial case of Hammond-a distraught father who shot, on live television, the man who raped and murdered his seven-year-old son. Then, to add to single mother Marty's impossible work load as Christmas approaches, a savagely battered woman client is charged with the stabbing death of her attacker, a brutal parole officer and live-in boyfriend. Now show more Marty has two seemingly impossible battles to win against her former colleagues.

This was a solid legal mystery that was mostly courtroom drama with a touch of humor. Parts of the law and legal proceedings are stated clearly when needed. Marty and Harry are likable and relateable characters. The only thing I didn’t like was twice when Marty did something risky when it wasn’t necessary. Otherwise, I enjoyed this and would read more by this author. show less

Marty Nickerson, the heroine of Rose Connors’ legal thriller set on Cape Cod, has changed sides: now she defends those she used to prosecute. She feels a bit insecure on this side of the courtroom in her first major case, a murder trial in which she is defending a man who killed the creep who tortured and murdered his son. Fortunately, she has a partner who takes the lead in the defense, a man who is also her sweetheart; and she is surrounded by a likeable cast of characters who add show more balance and humor to her life, and to the book.

Connors’ writing is sharp and occasionally witty, but the real sparkle in this book comes from the dead-on accurate trial dialogue. The trial scenes are unquestionably exaggerated for the sake of the drama and narrative flow, but the flavor, the emotion, the pacing are exactly right. Particularly intriguing is the way Connor portrays her judges, as complete humans who are autocratic within their arenas, who have irrational hatreds, who make rulings that are sometimes inexplicable – and who do that from both ends of the political spectrum. The grandstanding of the lawyers, usually waved away with a “Withdrawn!” on every weekly episode of “Law & Order,” results in a contempt citation in Connors’ universe, just as it would in real life. It’s obvious that Connors has been a practicing trial attorney for almost twenty years, and she puts that experience to excellent use in Temporary Sanity.

A major subplot in the book, while entertaining in itself, is unrealistic and detracts from the main event, the murder trial that drives the book. It introduces a level of drama, of action, that the strong trial writing does not need to sustain it. Perhaps Connors felt that she needed to endanger the trial judge in her book in order to introduce a genuine mystery to the book, since the murder trial is not mysterious; we know from the first page of the book that Marty’s client did, in fact, kill the man he is accused of murdering. But the puzzle is fairly easy to solve, and at least a touch ludicrous. Perhaps a stronger subplot, on an issue more closely related to the trial itself or arising from the same issue of a defense based on the hope of jury nullification, would have been a better choice here.

Nonetheless, this is a book that is well worth reading, and that will no doubt cause readers to seek out Connors’ first entry in what looks likely to be a strong series, Absolute Certainty. Temporary Sanity is a fine book from an author who, one hopes, will continue writing excellently about fascinating trials.

Originally published in The Drood Review of Mystery, Volume 23, No. 5 (Sept/Oct 2003) at pages 6-7. show less

Since I’m a lawyer, legal thrillers hold a special place in my heart. I’m of the opinion that Scott Turow perfected the form in Presumed Innocent, which I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. reading, never guessing the culprit until he told me straight out who it was. I’ve read ‘em all, really, disdaining only John Grisham (who in my opinion never wrote a good book after A Time to Kill, his first). I’ve read Scottoline, O’Shaughnessy, Wilhelm, Woods, Siegel, Richard North Patterson, show more Fyfield, Lescroart and many, many others. I love my busman’s holidays. Michael Connelly’s latest, The Lincoln Lawyer (Little Brown, $26.95, 404 pages), which immediately soared to the top of the bestseller lists, currently awaits my delectation, and I hope to be telling you more about that one soon.

One legal thriller writer who doesn’t get much attention, but should, is Rose Connors. She, unlike many writing in the genre, understands courtroom procedure and the way attorneys prepare for trial, as well as the corruption inherent in the system and how to remain starry-eyed about justice nonetheless. I’ve been following her work since Absolute Certainty in 2002 (Pocket, $6.99, 288 pages), through the excellent Temporary Sanity (Pocket, $6.99, 384 pages) and, most recently, Maximum Security (Pocket, $6.99, 307 pages).

Maximum Security isn’t going to fool anyone with any knowledge of the law for any length of time; the answer to this mystery is pretty darned obvious. That’s disappointing, but oddly enough, not fatal. Why? Because Connors has reached the point with her series that learning what’s happening to Marty, her son Luke, Harry, the Kydd and Geraldine (the evil prosecutor) seems like an equally important reason to read the book. Connors doesn’t disappoint on that score, and even adds a few more distinctive and fascinating characters to the mix.

The story itself is fairly straightforward: a rich man dies and his widow stands accused of his murder, having allegedly plotted to make it appear to be suicide. The motive is clear: only one month has passed since the suicide clause in the man’s life insurance policy has become null and void, and there’s a double indemnity clause besides, making the policy worth a nice, ripe $2 million. The evidence looks pretty bad for our femme fatale who, to make matters worse, confesses that she had had every intention of divorcing her husband. Marty is ambivalent about handling the case, not least because the woman she’s defending is Harry’s law school sweetheart. The tangles untangle with a fair bit of ease, but getting there is lots of fun.

I’m hoping that Connors will be back on her game of unguessable mysteries with her next title, False Testimony. But until then, Maximum Security will do. show less