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Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The 7th Canon by Robert Dugoni

Robert Dugoni has been on my to-read list for awhile. He is a productive and creative author, nominated for every major crime fiction award and winner of several. He is most known for his Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle; the 11^th book will be published in 2025. His first series was a set of legal thrillers with David Sloane and then he dipped into espionage with his Charles Jenkins books. Most recently he has begun a series about Seattle defense attorney Keera Duggan. He has also written several stand-alone thrillers.

The 7^th Canon (Thomas & Mercer, 2016) is one of his stand-alones. It features San Francisco defense attorney Peter Donley, who is suddenly pinch-hitting for his uncle in a murder trial. Not just any murder trial, the priest who set up and ran a controversial shelter for street youths in the sordid Tenderloin district has been accused of killing one of his inmates days before Christmas. The prosecuting attorney is campaigning for the governor’s chair and has a lot riding on a successful conviction. Donley is inexperienced but not so naïve that he doesn’t recognize when the evidence does not add up.

Donley is another fictional lawyer who believes in doing his own research. Most of the book centers on his investigation and his hunt for witnesses and crucial documentation, little of it takes place in a courtroom. The plot is a bit predictable but the characters are outstanding, original and well-rounded. Set in late 1980s San Francisco, not all that long ago, the places and streets mentioned remind the reader that things have changed in the intervening 35 years, as does the lack of references to cell phones and laptop computers. Fans of Dugoni’s other books should not overlook this one. Followers of legal thrillers in general should add it to their reading lists.

·       Publisher: ‎Thomas & Mercer (September 27, 2016)

·       Language: ‎English

·       Paperback: ‎333 pages

·       ISBN-10: ‎1503939421

·       ISBN-13: ‎978-1503939424

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/4evYbov

  

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night. 

Review: Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller

 

Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller finds Sharon working a complicated case involving private street ownership. In San Franciso, there are more than 200 streets that are owned by private individuals or entities. As these streets are not city property, they are lucrative targets for land speculators and others.

 

As the book opens, it is almost midnight Halloween, and Sharon McCone is on a stake out. Being a co-owner of the agency with her husband, Hy Ripinsky, who is currently overseas, she is out in the rain so that she does not have to fool with trick-or-treaters and somebody else does not miss a party or spending time with their kids this dark night. The rain fits her mood. One that she has been in for months now. A mood that she can’t really explain to herself or others that have noticed.

 

She is on Rowan Court trying to prevent another vandalism attack. McCone & Ripinsky International has been hired by the wealthy homeowners on the street to stop a rash of vandalism that has been happening to their homes and vehicles. Not just stop it, but identify the culprits and why they are doing it. One of their members has been reaching out to other folks and have discovered that this sort of thing is happening on other private streets, rich and poor, across the city.

 

Soon McCone finds things are linked across various neighborhoods. Events start to move forward and become deadly.

 

Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery is a complicated and often slow-moving read. At least a third of the book, if not more, consists of reminisces of previous cases and things that happened to McCone, Hy, and many others in the past, and an acknowledgment and recognition of how far all those involved have come in the here and now. Even if one had not seen the guest post by the author at SleuthSayers announcing this book is the end of the series, it is clear with the way the book unfolds for the reader.

 

It is also a good read. The case is complicated and chugs along at a semi steady pace between the many memories of the past. Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery ends the series well. 

 

Amazon Associates Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3JhwuSp 

 

My ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Grand Central Publishing, via NetGalley with no expectation of a review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024

Barry Ergang's FFB Review: MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS (2007) by Lee Goldberg

 
 

Hardcore “Monk” fans know the back story: Adrian Monk’s photojournalist wife Trudy was murdered in a car bombing by person or persons unknown. Devastated, Monk was nearly catatonic for the next three years. When he was released from the hospital, it was in the care of a nurse named Sharona Fleming, who functioned as both his nurse and assistant for the next several years. When Sharona remarried Trevor, the husband she’d previously divorced, and moved from San Francisco back to New Jersey, Monk hired Natalie Teeger as his new assistant.

 

So when, in Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants, Natalie’s daughter Julie breaks her wrist during a soccer game, necessitating a trip to the emergency room, both Natalie and Monk are stunned to see Sharona working there. Monk is ecstatic as he imagines both women in his life; Natalie feels threatened by the prospect of losing her job to Sharona.

 

It turns out that Trevor moved to Los Angeles after buying a landscaping company, and is now in jail, charged with murdering one of his clients. Convinced he’s guilty, Sharona would be happy to let him languish while she resumes working for Monk. Natalie wants Monk to prove Trevor innocent so Sharona will get back together with him, thus solidifying Natalie’s position as Monk’s sole assistant.

 

After Natalie takes it upon herself to visit Trevor, she persuades Monk to investigate. She, Sharona and Monk drive to L.A., a place Monk quickly learns to fear, to begin their probe of the events. There they meet, among others, bestselling mystery novelist Ian Ludlow, who frequently acts as a consultant to the LAPD.

 

When they return to San Francisco, Captain Stottlemeyer tells Monk, who’s a paid consultant to the SFPD, that he needs his help in the murder—on a nude beach, to Monk‘s chagrined horror—of one Ronald Webster, a shoe store clerk.

 

Eventually it becomes clear that the two apparently disparate cases are connected, and any veteran mystery reader will easily guess the identity of the culprit. Proving said culprit’s guilt is another matter entirely, because that person has cleverly and convincingly developed seemingly airtight cases against Sharona and Natalie as the perpetrators of the two murders.

 

This is the fourth of Lee Goldberg’s Monk novels that I’ve read. I’ve enjoyed all of them, but this one is the best to date, in no small measure because of its fairly-clued solution. The clue, I might point out, is kept in front of the reader throughout the book, but is nevertheless elusive—a sign of excellent authorial misdirection.

 

Recommended without reservations.

 

Barry Ergang © 2008, 2021

 

Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. Some of it is available at Amazon and at Smashwords. His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/.

 

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Final Verdict by Sheldon Siegel

I love good legal thrillers and I was delighted to learn about this new-to-me series. Final Verdict by Sheldon Siegel (Putnam, 2003) is the fourth book in a fine string of stories set in San Francisco. Fans of John Lescroart and Scott Turow will enjoy these mysteries with unforgettable characters and great courtroom scenes.

Mike Daley, a former priest, and his ex-wife Rosie Fernandez have resumed their law practice in San Francisco after a year of teaching in Berkeley. The opening scene demonstrates Mike’s courtroom skills better than anyone could describe them, as he simultaneously puts an overly ambitious new Assistant District Attorney in his place and extracts a repeat offender from a felony charge involving a purloined rotisserie chicken.

The self-congratulations within Mike and Rosie’s office stop abruptly when Leon Walker, a former client, calls to ask for Mike’s assistance on a murder charge. Rosie did not believe in Leon’s innocence when Mike defended him years ago and to this day thinks Mike represented a guilty man, so she doesn’t want anything to do with Leon now. The media agreed with Rosie at the time, and Leon’s life never got back on track.

Mike decides to at least see what the case is about. On first glance, it appears to be open-and-shut. A hotshot venture capitalist is found stabbed to death in an alley near a liquor store where Leon works. Leon is found close by, unconscious with a blood-covered knife and the victim’s money in his pocket.

Mike decides to represent Leon when he learns that Leon is terminally ill with only weeks to live. He cannot possibly survive long enough for a trial, and he wants his name cleared before he dies. Under the circumstances Rosie can’t really object even though she’s not happy. Mike and his brother, a private investigator, start asking questions and learn, contrary to the information first received, everyone did not love the victim. And just what was a wealthy guy in a Mercedes doing so far from home in a run-down and dangerous area of the city?

Siegel has a flair for characterization; even the minor ones in this story stand out. Smoothly paced, the turns and twists took me by surprise every time I thought I understood the direction the plot was unfolding. An absorbing story! Number 11 in this series was released in March 2020. Anyone unfamiliar with Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez have an abundance of satisfying reading to look forward to.

            

·                     Hardcover: 400 pages

·                     Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition (August 11, 2003)

·                     Language: English

·                     ISBN-10: 0399150420

·                     ISBN-13: 978-0399150425

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

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Review: Someone Always Knows: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller

Gage Renshaw was supposed to be dead. At least that was what Sharon McCone and Hy Ripinsky had thought until his unwelcome appearance at the building in San Francisco. Why he is back now and what he wants isn’t clear, but the guy is certainly bad news and well known for his mind games and other tactics.

That problem though has to take a back seat to what they do on a daily basis for their clients.  October grinds on with Hy out of town on FBI business and Sharon handling everything else. That includes a deal involving Chad Kenyon who has a situation that needs to be handled. One of the two Kenyon brothers, they have a reputation for buying things and selling them almost as quickly while making a very nice profit in the deal. They are a force, not just in San Francisco, but across most of the western states. The money is not what drives them as they are the type that love the acquisition chase and making the deal.

Their recent deal to buy an abandoned house on Webster Street has become a problem. They moved too fast to buy the derelict and were not aware that folks of all types are going in and out of the place at all hours of the day and night. Other issues have arisen making it quite the neighborhood nuisance. Kenyon wants McCone to get the place cleared out and secured and wants it done as cheap as possible.

McCone works out a deal with Kenyon and puts her people on it. As part of that work, those that go in to the place are investigated as well as the history of the house itself. That trail has many leads with one in particular taking her to Mexico and back. All the while, Renshaw is present in the shadows of their lives doing what he does to bedevil all involved.

Someone Always Knows: A Sharon McCone Mystery is the latest in the long running series penned by Marcia Muller. Old entanglement and memories play a major role in the read. Much like the flat cover art, the read itself is rather flat even at what are supposed to be suspenseful moments. It lacks that certain something that makes it stand out. That essential element that drives this series is not present at all resulting in an average book when the reader expects far more from this series and this author. Because so much of the past is heavily referenced in this book, those unfamiliar with the series will save lots of time in reading previous novels.

Someone Always Knows: A Sharon McCone Mystery

Marcia Muller

http://MarciaMuller.com

Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group)

http://www.grandcentralpublishing.com

2016

ISBN# 978-1-4555-2795-3

Hardback (also available in eBook and audio formats)

304 Pages (actual text is 292 pages)

$26.00

Material supplied by the good people of the Plano Public Library System. 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

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Review: "The Night Searchers: A Sharon McCone Mystery" by Marcia Muller

It’s March when the husband and wife first meet private detective Sharon McCone in her San Francisco office. Young and seemingly doing okay financially speaking the young couple owns a condo in one of the better local areas known as Russian Hill. While Jay Givens is sure his wife Camilla thinks she saw something he is also sure that it is all in her head. Camilla insists that it happened and while Sharon may agree with the husband’s assessment she does not like his attitude or his behavior.

Camilla says that she was walking the neighborhood one evening just after seven pm and as she passed a vacant lot she witnessed some people clustered under a large and no doubt expensive patio type umbrella. They had a portable fireplace which was lit and going in great gusto. She heard the cry of a baby and believes they were about to sacrifice an infant as she thinks they were devil worshippers.

Sharon McCone is reluctant to take the case as she believes the woman is far more in need of a good psychiatrist than a private detective. But, they were returned to her by her lawyer friend Ben Solomon who is aware of other incidents in recent months. Ben thinks there is something to what Camilla claims though he has no real reason to believe that other than a feeling. Before long Sharon gets the same sense.  As she starts investigating further she learns of a shadowy group known as “The Night Searchers” who are playing a very specialized game of geocaching. The husband, Jay Givens, is involved with them and what that means, if anything, regarding Camilla and another case being worked by Hy Rapinsky, Sharon’s husband, is unclear. But, something is going on and before long Sharon is in a world of trouble with no much to go on.

The latest in the series that began with Edwin of the Iron Shoes is another good one. While character development is very limited and primarily focused on Sharon moving on after recent events in the series, one does not expect radical change for no reason for the long established character. Fortunately these days Sharon has a lot of resources in various areas to call on when she needs help and that allows various secondary characters long familiar to series readers to be more involved in this one than normal. The book flows well and moves forward rapidly making The Night Searchers: A Sharon McCone Mystery another good read from award winning author Marcia Muller.

The Night Searchers: A Sharon McCone Mystery 

Marcia Muller

http://www.marciamuller.com

Grand Central Publishing (division of Hachette Book Group)

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com

July 2014

ISBN# 978-1-4555-2793-9

Hardback (also available in e-book and audio forms)

295 Pages

$26.00

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Review: "Lion Plays Rough: A Leo Maxwell Mystery" by Lachlan Smith

Teddy Maxwell had been the best criminal defense lawyer in town though he certainly wasn’t the most ethical. A gunshot to the head took him down and pretty much stopped his legal career. These days while he does show up at the office, he has a hard time with memory issues and various cognitive problems. It’s been two and a half years since that day and Leo Maxwell still hopes that someday his brother might live on his own.

In the meantime Leo has a major trial coming up with his client Marty Scarsdale. He stands accused of sexually assaulting Erica Lawler, the 13 year old friend of Scarsdale’s daughter, Angela. The crime allegedly happened during a sleepover in the Scarsdale home. The evidence is against Scarsdale and includes the massive amount of detail that Erica has testified to in police interviews and will no doubt repeat in court. The fact that Marty’s wife has kicked him out of their home raises the stress level on the client and does nothing to make him more sympathetic to the jury. Leo figures that if he can win the case he can make a name for himself and strike out on his own. A win would give him his freedom from Teddy’s ex-wife Jeanie who is his boss and has a very different way of looking at cases and life in general than Leo.

Her control of him and how he wants to practice law constantly grates on his nerves. While winning the Scarsdale case would be a good opportunity there may even be a better one. Jamil Robinson is in the Santa Rita Jail and has sent his sister, Lavonia Martin, to meet with Leo. According to her, Oakland Police are about to discover that the gun they recovered from Jamil’s car the night before was used in a murder two weeks ago. Jamil is on parole so a gun in his car is a ticket straight back to prison. That is bad enough but he expects to be accused of murder once the police id the weapon. The murder victim was one of the leaders in the local drug trade. She claims that a crooked police detective named Campbell planted the gun in the car after Jamil had been falsely arrested during a rigged traffic stop. She has ten thousand dollars in cash and a brother she is desperate to help in any way possible.

Before long Leo finds out that nothing is as it seems at home or at work in Lion Plays Rough:  A Leo Maxwell Mystery. Readers soon discover that while nothing is as it seems in either case, plot coincidences will drive the majority of this book where Leo will be saved again and again from a certain and very painful death. In a book that is ploddingly slow, especially from a book labeled a thriller by the publisher, Leo and readers grind though cases that go nowhere fast.

After the incredibly good Bear is Broken this second book of the series goes nowhere fast.  The elements of a really good thriller are present with plenty of angst at home and at work, crooked cops, drug dealers, and more in two very complicated cases. But, there is little to no suspense in the grind to the conclusion of each case as well as a high degree of predictability. The astounding number of coincides rise to such a level by the end of the book that the reader is forgiven the occasional chuckle. One hopes that this book is a temporary setback and the next one in the series proves to be as good as the first.

Lion Plays Rough: A Leo Maxwell Mystery

Lachlan Smith

http://www.leomaxwellmysteries.com

The Mysterious Press (imprint of Grove/Atlantic)

http://www.groveatlantic.com

2014

ISBN#978-0-8021-2216-2

Hardback (audio and e-book available)

250 Pages

$24.00

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Review: "Bear Is Broken: A Leo Maxwell Mystery" by Lachlan Smith

Having just passed the bar a few days earlier newly minted lawyer Leo Maxwell expected a routine lunch with his brother Teddy Maxwell. It was 1999 and Teddy was deep in trial and locked into the case. When in trial he always ate at Coruna. That habit meant the shooter knew exactly where Teddy would be when court was in recess and could easily plan the attack. The shooter walked in and briefly stood behind Leo before firing one shot over his shoulder and fired one round directly into Teddy’s head putting him on the floor in a pool of blood and damn near dead.

Miraculously, Teddy didn’t die and survives the shooting to lie in a hospital bed deep in a coma.  As Leo is forced to face some very unpleasant truths about Teddy’s medical condition and his quality of life should he survive. There are more unpleasant truths in store. Teddy vigorously defended his clients against the police and courts in San Francisco and that means there are those who shed no tears over the attempted murder of Teddy Maxwell. Teddy was flamboyant and successful in his defense work and clearly he pushed things close to the edge on various matters. As far as Leo knows Teddy was not dirty, but now there are allegations of perjury, fraud, missing client money, and more.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg in this book full of twists, backstory, and complex dysfunctional relationships. While Leo works to find the shooter and can’t decide whether he should pray for his brother to survive or not, things get murkier and murkier page after page in Bear Is Broken: A Leo Maxwell Mystery.

A debut mystery for a projected new series that should be a very good one if this opening book sets the standard. Complex characters, plenty of intrigue, and many twists keeps the reader locked in throughout this compelling debut novel. Those readers who prefer simple characters they can like, simple plots, and light secondary storylines will want to look elsewhere as this often dark book is not for them.

Bear Is Broken: A Leo Maxwell Mystery

Lachlan Smith

http://www.leomaxwellmysteries.com

The Mysterious Press (Grove/Atlantic)

http://www.groveatlantic.com

2013

ISBN #978-0-8021-2079-3

Hardback (also available in audio and e-book)

260 Pages

$24.00

Material supplied by the good people of the Plano Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013