Amazon.com Review
Of all the legal eagles nesting in the thriller trees these days, Carolyn Wheat is definitely the one with the brightest feathers. Her dialogue-- in and out of court--crackles with focused energy, and her obvious knowledge of and respect for the trappings of the law immediately add verisimilitude. "If the Appellate Division, First Department, courthouse in Manhattan, where I'd taken my oath as a lawyer, was a Gothic cathedral of the law, then the Second Department was a Protestant meetinghouse," she has her alter ego, Cass Jameson, say as she approaches that Brooklyn edifice to plead a case. "Its austere lines and jewel-box proportions were in sharp contrast to the ornate, overblown style of its Manhattan counterpart, with its stained-glass dome and overpowering wood-and-brass ornamentation. This courthouse was equally dignified, but without the florid Gilded Age excess. The cloakroom didn't boast long brass pegs on which 19th Century lawyers once placed their beaver hats while addressing the court." Cass is in the building that day to defend an apparently framed client. She succeeds, unfortunately--and Keith Jernigan turns out to be a stalker who directs his dangerous attention toward Cass. But Cass's problems don't end with Jernigan. There's also a very nasty drama critic upset over Cass's handling of his wife's divorce case, and a troubled cop with a mysterious agenda. If you like your legal thrillers fresh, feisty, and grounded in reality, harvest this latest Wheat. Past crops in paperback: Troubled Waters, Where Nobody Dies, Mean Streak, Fresh Kills. --Dick Adler
From Publishers Weekly
In her latest adventure, Brooklyn criminal lawyer Cass Jameson (last seen in Troubled Waters, 1997) gains a reversal of the conviction of Keith Jernigan, a client she believes blameless, and then discovers that he may be responsible for a worse crime than the one for which he was convicted. In this complex page-turner, Cass is drawn unwillingly into a battle between her tenant, photographer Nellis Cartwright, and Nellis's ex-husband, Grant Eddington, a collector of Japanese art. Nellis wants to renegotiate the divorce settlement, accusing her lawyer, a friend of Cass's, of malpractice. Grant says Nellis stole some of his most valuable pieces. Cass receives anonymous threats, and someone hacks into her business computer. So, after Nellis is shot in Cass's office, Cass sensibly fears that she herself was the target. Meanwhile, Keith's friendship with the son of Cass's secretary lands the boy in jail. Suspicious of Keith, Cass and a friendly cop, Liam Gallagher, investigate her client's background, leading from the Crown Heights Hasidic community to a shabby artists' colony. In a terrifying climax, Cass is almost murdered by a surprising enemy and then is institutionalized in Bellevue. Her old friend Detective Leroy Button appears suddenly and, like a deux ex machina, clears up all problems in three pages, providing an abrupt and disconcerting end to this fast-paced novel.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for Cass Jameson to go to bat for Keith Jernigan after all. Now that she's won him a new trial for robbery on the grounds of a tainted identification, he's grateful, all rightso grateful that he's been taking her to dinner, sending her flowers and notes, phoning her at all hours, and refusing to take no for an answer. Even worse, a look into Keith's past suggests that stalking isn't a new hobby of his, as the former girlfriend whose face he disfigured with acid can attest. Keith would clearly be enough trouble to monopolize Cass's whole caseload, if it weren't for Nellis Cartwright, Cass's photographer tenant, who's intent on dragging Cass into the middle of a divorce that's already left Nellis's last attorney whimpering, and her vindictive ex Grant Eddington, a drama critic whose pen is the least mighty of his weapons, out for blood. Soon after Eddington warns Cass that people who cross him end up sorry, her practice begins to fall apart in a perfect hail of departed secretaries, bogus bills, forged messages asking favors of judges, and actionable grabs for trusteeships. Looks like Keith's not the only one Cass, now turned ``Job with a law degree,'' needs protection fromthough even the sharpest readers will be hard-pressed to identify her real tormentor before she ends up in Bellevue. Far more modestly focused than Cass's ambitious last, Troubled Waters (1997), but well-nigh perfect of its kind. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
“[Cass Jameson is] a witty, gritty heroine.” —New York Post
“Wheat is a strong, smart writer with a clear head for complicated matters and a kind eye for her characters’ feelings.” —The New York Times
“Dazzlingly plotted.” —Kirkus Reviews on Troubled Waters
About the Author
Carolyn Wheat is an attorney, editor, and award-winning author. She has worked on both sides of the legal fence, defending indigents accused of crime for the Brooklyn office of the Legal Aid Society and giving legal advice to the New York City Police Department. Wheat’s short stories have won the Anthony, Agatha, Shamus, and Macavity Awards, and two of her six Cass Jameson Mysteries have been nominated for Edgar Awards.
