An Innocent Client - The #Friday56 and #BookBeginnings on Friday

An Innocent Client is the first book in Scott Pratt's eight-book Joe Dillard Series, and I'm sure glad there are more for me to read. Joe Dillard is a likable character, the plot moves along briskly (with plenty of twists and turns), and the ending is satisfying. Joe has plenty of professional and personal obstacles to overcome (nobody seems to like a lawyer who defends criminals), and the action kept me turning pages. I'm looking forward to getting to know this character even better in future books.

FYI: Scott Pratt and his son publish Scott's books through a corporation they formed - Phoenix Flying, Inc. This book is beautifully formatted and free of errors, which I always appreciate.

Genre: Legal Mystery
Book Length: 372 Pages
Amazon Link: An Innocent Client
Author Website/Blog: Scott Pratt

Book Beginning:
April 12 - 7:00 A.M.
     It was my fortieth birthday, and the first thing I had to do was deal with Johnny Wayne Neal. The forensic psychiatrist I'd hired to examine him said Johnny Wayne was a narcissist, a pathological liar, and a sociopath, and those were his good qualities. He called Johnny Wayne an "irredeemable monster." I'd asked the shrink not to write any of that down. I didn't want the district attorney to see it. Monster or not, Johnny Wayne was still my client.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
     "I don't see how she could possibly have killed Tester," I said. "For one thing, he was a 260-pound man. What does she weigh? 110?"

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
     A preacher is found brutally murdered in a Tennessee motel room.
     A beautiful, mysterious young girl is accused.
     In this Mystery Readers International finalist for "Best Debut Mystery," criminal defense lawyer Joe Dillard has become jaded over the years as he's tried to balance his career against his conscience. Savvy but cynical, Dillard wants to quit doing criminal defense, but he can't resist the chance to represent someone who might actually be innocent. His drug-addicted sister has just been released from prison and his mother is succumbing to Alzheimer's, but Dillard's commitment to the case never wavers despite the personal troubles and professional demands that threaten to destroy him. 
              

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Betrayed - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

Lisa Scottoline knows how to ramp up the tension! In BETRAYED, her character is dealing with a demanding job, a favorite aunt who's facing surgery for breast cancer, a strained relationship with her mother, a boyfriend who just isn't working out, and then there are the murders! That's not all, either, but I don't want to include spoilers. This is the only book in the Rosato & DiNunzio Series that I've read, and I'm looking forward to more. (It stands alone.)
FYI: Betrayed is another book I picked up from the bargain shelves at Barnes & Noble. I like this author a lot. 

First Paragraph:
Judy Carrier eyed her reflection in the shiny elevator doors, wondering when mirrors stopped being her friends. Her cropped yellow-blonde hair stuck out like demented sunrays, and her pink-and-blue Oilily sweater and jeans clashed with her bright red clogs. Worst of all was her expression, easy to read on a face as flat as an artist's palette, with troubled blue eyes set wide over a small nose and thin lips pressed unhappily together. 

Teaser (from Page 125):
Whoomp! Judy startled at a rushing sound, a rapid movement in the air around her, too fast to be anything natural. A large figure zoomed into her, a shadowy blur streaking the darkness.

Genre: Legal Thriller/Mystery
Length: 340 Pages (hardback)
Amazon Link: Betrayed
Author Website: Lisa Scottoline

Synopsis (from Amazon):
     Blockbuster author Lisa Scottoline returns to the Rosato & Associates law firm with Betrayed, and maverick lawyer Judy Carrier takes the lead in a case that's more personal than ever. Judy has always championed the underdog, so when Iris, the housekeeper and best friend of Judy's beloved Aunt Barb, is found dead of an apparent heart attack, Judy begins to suspect foul play. The circumstances of the death leave Judy with more questions than answers, and never before has murder struck so close to home. 
     In the meantime, Judy's own life roils with emotional and professional upheaval. She doesn't play well with her boss, Bennie Rosato, which jeopardizes her making partner at the firm. Not only that, her best friend Mary DiNunzio is planning a wedding, leaving Judy feeling left behind, as well as newly unhappy in her relationship with her live-in boyfriend Frank.
     Judy sets her own drama aside and begins an investigation of Iris's murder, then discovers a shocking truth that confounds her expectations and leads her in a completely different direction. She finds herself plunged into a shadowy world of people who are so desperate that they cannot go to the police, and where others are so ruthless that they prey on vulnerability. Judy finds strength within herself to try to get justice for Iris and her aunt -- but it comes at a terrible price.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Bodily Harm - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

I don't often read legal thrillers, but after enjoying Bodily Harm by Robert Dugoni, I've become a fan of the genre. This story kept me riveted from start to finish with its superb plot and dramatic action. Seattle attorney David Sloan (the book's hero) is a likable character, and I felt empathy for him from the very beginning. I'll be reading more books by this talented author.

To learn more about the story, read the synopsis below. Although this is the third book featuring Sloan, it stands alone. (Why can I never seem to read the first book first??) 

Book Beginning (Prologue):
     
Guangzhou, China
      It hurt to blink.
     The light stabbed at his eyes, shooting daggers of pain to the back of his skull. When he shut them an aurora of black and white spots lingered.
      Albert Payne had never been one to partake liberally in alcohol; not that he was a complete teetotaler either. He'd been hungover a handful of times during his fifty-six years, but those few occasions had been the result of unintended excess, never a deliberate intent to get drunk. So although he had little experience with which to compare it, his pounding head seemed a clear indicator that he had indeed drunk to excess. He'd have to accept that as so, because he could remember little about the prior evening.

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 of my hardback book):
     Sloane glanced from the road to the manila file on the edge of the passenger seat and wondered if Kyle Horgan had hit upon the next "It" toy. If he had, Horgan's scribbled drawings could be as valuable as a Rembrandt, according to Stroud. And that changed everything.
     Money always did.

Genre: Legal Thriller / Mystery
Length: 369 Pages (Hardback)
Amazon Link: Bodily Harm
More Books by This Author: Robert Dugoni's Website

Synopsis (from Amazon):
     Bodily Harm opens with a big win for David Sloane and his new partner, Tom Pendergrass, in a malpractice case centered on the death of a young child. But on the heels of this seeming victory, an unlikely character—toy designer Kyle Horgan— comes forward to tell Sloane that he’s gotten it all wrong: Horgan’s the one who’s truly responsible for the little boy’s death and possibly others—not the pediatrician Sloane has just proven guilty.
     Ordinarily, Sloane might have dismissed such a person as a crackpot, but something about this case has always troubled him—something that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. When Sloane tries to follow up with Horgan, he finds the man’s apartment a shambles— ransacked by unknown perpetrators. Horgan has vanished without a trace. Together with his longtime investigative partner Charles Jenkins, Sloane reexamines his clients’ son’s death and digs deeper into Horgan’s claims, forcing him to enter the billion-dollar, cutthroat toy industry. As Sloane gets closer to the truth, he trips a wire that leads to a shocking chain of events that nearly destroys him.
     To get to the bottom of it all and find justice for the families harmed, Sloane must keep in check his overwhelming desire for revenge. Full of nail-bitingly tense action scenes as well as edge-of-your-seat courtroom drama, Bodily Harm finds Robert Dugoni at the very top of his game.

                            

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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