Thursday, July 21, 2011

Justice by Karen Robards

Synopsis:
Feisty criminal attorney Jessica Ford has done her best to comply with the orders of the Secret Service’s unofficial witness protection program ever since she became the lone witness in the First Lady’s murder. Unfortunately, winning her first high-profile case for a prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm and having her face all over the news doesn’t work so well with her new low-profile life. When Secret Service agent Mark Ryan is assigned to keep her safe at all costs, Jess is less than thrilled—after all, he is her ex-boyfriend.


Jess’s next case is just as newsworthy: a rape involving a senator’s son. When the victim makes a sensational revelation on the stand, Jess suspects it is because she was threatened. Meanwhile, Jess has an uneasy feeling about the beautiful young associate she replaced: where is Allison Howard? No one has seen her since she left the firm.

Taking over Allison’s position, Jess becomes more and more haunted by her predecessor. Then she discovers that the victim in the rape case has also disappeared. With Mark’s help, Jess starts searching for both women. Soon she uncovers the case of a missing teenage girl who knew Allison. Could there be a link? When someone tries to kill her, Jess knows she is getting too close to something.

As Jess hurtles closer to the truth—and the sexual tension between her and Mark grows hotter than ever—she finds herself in a race against the clock to find the answers before what she doesn’t know gets them both killed.

My thoughts:
I read this book as part of Pocket Blogs Book Tours on Goodreads.  I have been meaning to try a Karen Robards novel for a number of years, I have some on my shelves but as my shelves are overflowing I just haven't gotten to them yet.  I signed up because I was interested and I knew having a deadline would make me read the book in a timely manner. 

The book had a bit of a slow section towards the beginning, but once it picked up I read the rest of it in one evening.  It is classed as a romantic thriller and I would also say it has a bit of mystery thrown in as well.  Jess is a lawyer for a prestigious law firm.  She gets pulled into a high profile case a the last minute because her predecessor elopes to get married and go on an extended honeymoon.  The case throws her into the spotlight which she has been trying to avoid because of her past celebrity as the lone survivor of a car accident that killed the presidents wife.  When her life is threatened they can't figure out if it just local DC crime, targeting for being the sole survivor or related to the rape case she has been working on.

As more and more comes to light about the lawyer she is replacing more questions surface.  The suspense is very well done and some of the convoluted workings of the legal system are put on display.  How do expensive firms have such good track records in winning cases?  Is it the training of their lawyers?  The resources at their disposal?  Or is it by illegal means?

Jess really fights her attraction for Mark and that sometimes got a little tedious for me.  Since this is my first book by Robards I don't know if these two were together in a past book and this is picking up where they left off or if the characters usually stand alone.  I am interested in trying out some of her other books now that I have read this one, but it is going to take some shelf shuffling to find them!  I see this as a good summer read, perfect for sitting by the pool or one the beach.

Details
•Pub. Date: July 2011
•Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
•Format: Hardcover , 352pp
•ISBN-13: 9781439183700
•ISBN: 1439183708

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