"A Texas attorney defends a 16-year-old cheerleader accused of patricide.
"This 12th installment of Manchee's (Deadly Dining, 2014, etc.) mystery series boomerangs to near the beginning of Stan Turner's legal career in the early 1980s, when he worked as a solo litigator. Stan goes to court for a restraining order that Marjorie Monroe filed to keep her alcoholic husband, Frank, a successful real estate developer, away from their adoptive teenage daughter, Melody. Frank allegedly injured the girl during a fight he was having with Marjorie, who wants to leave him. Before divorce papers can be served to Frank, he ends up dead in his garage, but not from carbon monoxide, as was first assumed. Someone switched Frank's blood thinner medication, which resulted in his death. Arrows point to Melody, the heir to Frank's fortune. Marjorie also had motive and opportunity, as did Frank's sister, Natalie, who barely tolerated him and with whom he shared a multimillion-dollar trust. Frank also recently screwed over the head of a rival building company. After Melody is charged with the killing, Stan agrees to represent her, despite his limited experience defending murder suspects. This thriller succeeds far better than the previous book in the series, in large part due to the concentration on a single case--although not a singular murder. The author's experience as an attorney helps make the trial scenes both realistic and tense. But too much of the tale takes place in a courtroom; more action away from the legal proceedings would have been welcome in this disturbing story about a troubled family. And at over 400 pages, the book could have benefited from some streamlining. Many characters range from unlikable to unconscionable, but in Manchee's Texas, women are universally attractive, which suits Stan, who is a bit of a horndog. He muses about a fellow attorney: "She was a very attractive woman and there was dangerous chemistry between us. If I hadn't been married, we'd have been lovers."
"Readers' blood may run cold while enjoying this taut murder mystery." Kirkus Reviews 1/17/2019
"This is a superb publication that has a plot that leaves the reader reeling. A mystery with the twists that a reader has come to expect from this author. Manchee has a penchant for taking his readers on a ride and one with a cacophony that a reader is lost and not until the end truly sees the publication for the evil it truly is.
"The book has such an evil, con-fluted, and despicable plot that I was guessing to the end. To not give away any of the ending--it is absolutely brilliant, and Melody is a well-rounded child despite all she went through.
"The characters in a mystery are usually the love-hate type of people, but in this publication, there is certainly none of that when you read about the parents.
This is fiction and as such a child raised in the foster care system does not necessarily have the character of Melody but one can hope.
"The manner in which the author chose to write this book was genius and gives readers one story broken into two distinct parts.
"I would suggest you take the time to read this very interesting book with the most unusual plot." Laura H. (Reader) 12/3/2018
