Sad Books Say So Much

Meh.

This book really should have been a movie.  That way, I could have sat back, relaxed and enjoyed seeing the action unfold.  I tend to be more willing to suspend disbelief when it's on the screen playing out in front of me.

Truth is, I quite enjoyed the first part of this book.  Author Melissa F. Miller does a great job of skewering the law firm culture, exposing the greed for money and power, and the way it sucks the life and the humanity out of lawyers and clients alike.  I've always been very comfortable with my choice to make three times less than my colleagues by following my passion and serving the public interest in a government job, but that choice was also based on personal considerations.  I wanted to travel.  I wanted to sleep in on weekends.  Hell, I wanted to eat lunch!

Then we get bogged down in this mystery that isn't one, and Miller loses me completely.   She takes a likeable character and turns her into a pawn.  The character must now break away from her normal environment, which was interesting in and of itself, in order to solve a crime and outwit the crimnals, but there is virtually no suspense.  We know what the crime is.  We know when it will occur.  We know who the perps are.  So we are locked into pages and pages and pages of fake intrigue before we finally get the outcome we predicted long ago.  SO disappointing.

And then there is the narrator, who makes tough-as-nails Sasha sound hesitant and girly, and commits the ultimate sin of dumbing down every person of colour in the book by having them spout ebonics.  To say I was not impressed would be an understatement - and I'm not one of those listeners who is hard on narrators.  Just know your characters!

So I can't recommend this book, because it was a crash course in what NOT to do.