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tiggum's review against another edition
1.0
Stupid, lazy, rich arseholes waste everyone's time.
This book is terrible. The protagonist is incredibly obnoxious, and her inability to put two and two together combined with her apparent inability to do the reasonable or sensible thing at any time serve only to pad the story out by making everything take longer than it should.
Everything about Willa is irritating. She seems to believe she's just a low-paid public servant, but she's clearly incredibly wealthy. She apparently has a job from which she basically can't be fired (American federal judges are appointed for life?), so she does a massively half-arsed job of it and barely even bothers showing up, then acts like her boss (or not her boss? I couldn't even tell) is the arsehole because, as far as I can tell, he'd like her to actually do her job.
She daydreams through trials, she behaves incredibly unprofessionally, and seems to spend more time playing golf than working. And she's incredibly dumb. Generally in a mystery the protagonist is supposed to figure things out, but Willa needs everything spelled out for her. For example, we learn that character A is being blackmailed. We learn that character A is making payments to character B. But Willa somehow fails to connect those two facts until character A flat out states that character B is the blackmailer.
Then there's the actual plot. It just goes around and around in circles, introducing a whole lot of irrelevant characters and trying to convince us that Willa is making progress when she clearly isn't. The obvious solutions are ignored until right near the end when it turns out that the big conspiracy angle Willa's been pursuing this whole time was bullshit and it was actually the more straightforward answer that any normal person would have been investigating right from the beginning.
The only reason the reader doesn't figure out the solution ahead of time is that the book deliberately keeps the evidence from you, first by having Willa just investigate obvious red herrings and generally waste time, and then by having Willa (as narrator) just leave information out. Like when she sees a photo that gives the whole thing away, but doesn't say who's in it. The reader at this point is thinking "Well, whoever's in that photo is the obvious suspect" but Willa doesn't actually figure that out until considerably later.
And finally there's all the inaccuracies. Apparently Capri is a former lawyer, but she seems to know less about the law than the average person. Hint: Not going to the police to say "My wildly unreliable friend implied to me that she might know the identity of that dead man who was discovered recently because of reasons she won't tell me." is not obstruction of justice, it's just called "not wasting the police's time."
And the ignorance doesn't end there, it extends to medicine (the placebo effect is not a new discovery and it doesn't mean you can cure all illnesses with your mind), even such simple things like computer file names - what program would you use to open files named rpt.dr1, rpt.dr2, cronin.pat and cronin.rup, do you think? Trick question, they're all text files for some reason.
In conclusion, this book has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Don't read it.
This book is terrible. The protagonist is incredibly obnoxious, and her inability to put two and two together combined with her apparent inability to do the reasonable or sensible thing at any time serve only to pad the story out by making everything take longer than it should.
Everything about Willa is irritating. She seems to believe she's just a low-paid public servant, but she's clearly incredibly wealthy. She apparently has a job from which she basically can't be fired (American federal judges are appointed for life?), so she does a massively half-arsed job of it and barely even bothers showing up, then acts like her boss (or not her boss? I couldn't even tell) is the arsehole because, as far as I can tell, he'd like her to actually do her job.
She daydreams through trials, she behaves incredibly unprofessionally, and seems to spend more time playing golf than working. And she's incredibly dumb. Generally in a mystery the protagonist is supposed to figure things out, but Willa needs everything spelled out for her. For example, we learn that character A is being blackmailed. We learn that character A is making payments to character B. But Willa somehow fails to connect those two facts until character A flat out states that character B is the blackmailer.
Then there's the actual plot. It just goes around and around in circles, introducing a whole lot of irrelevant characters and trying to convince us that Willa is making progress when she clearly isn't. The obvious solutions are ignored until right near the end when it turns out that the big conspiracy angle Willa's been pursuing this whole time was bullshit and it was actually the more straightforward answer that any normal person would have been investigating right from the beginning.
The only reason the reader doesn't figure out the solution ahead of time is that the book deliberately keeps the evidence from you, first by having Willa just investigate obvious red herrings and generally waste time, and then by having Willa (as narrator) just leave information out. Like when she sees a photo that gives the whole thing away, but doesn't say who's in it. The reader at this point is thinking "Well, whoever's in that photo is the obvious suspect" but Willa doesn't actually figure that out until considerably later.
And finally there's all the inaccuracies. Apparently Capri is a former lawyer, but she seems to know less about the law than the average person. Hint: Not going to the police to say "My wildly unreliable friend implied to me that she might know the identity of that dead man who was discovered recently because of reasons she won't tell me." is not obstruction of justice, it's just called "not wasting the police's time."
And the ignorance doesn't end there, it extends to medicine (the placebo effect is not a new discovery and it doesn't mean you can cure all illnesses with your mind), even such simple things like computer file names - what program would you use to open files named rpt.dr1, rpt.dr2, cronin.pat and cronin.rup, do you think? Trick question, they're all text files for some reason.
In conclusion, this book has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Don't read it.
susannes_pagesofcrime's review against another edition
2.0
Not great - too many "foreboding" sentences to end the chapters. Also a weird use of living of "I" in sentences. I don't think I will be continuing with the series - too many other excellent books out there to be read!
debraeve's review against another edition
5.0
There's a scene in Carly's Conspiracy that takes place on a golf course between the protagonist, Willa, and another woman, a possible suspect. At the end, you feel like you've witnessed a cage fight, the repartee is so intense.
Make no mistake. You are deep inside Willa's head when she performs her mental martial arts, and Diane Capri's writing style reflects that. Sometimes it's practiced. Sometimes it's grueling. But it's never boring.
A twisty plot, an unreliable witness and the secret lives of old-money Tampa make Carly's Conspiracy a taut, fascinating read. Highly recommended for those who enjoy cerebral mysteries.
Make no mistake. You are deep inside Willa's head when she performs her mental martial arts, and Diane Capri's writing style reflects that. Sometimes it's practiced. Sometimes it's grueling. But it's never boring.
A twisty plot, an unreliable witness and the secret lives of old-money Tampa make Carly's Conspiracy a taut, fascinating read. Highly recommended for those who enjoy cerebral mysteries.
lsmoore43's review against another edition
4.0
I love a good legal thriller and this was definitely one that had me from the start. My favorite genre is the thriller and with the legal aspect it kept me interested all the way through.
Ms Capri has a wonderful talent for catching the reader's interest and keeping it throughout her books. This was the first one I read and I loved it. Now I can't wait to read more of her books in this series.
Thank you for a wonderful story and what I believe will be a great series.
Ms Capri has a wonderful talent for catching the reader's interest and keeping it throughout her books. This was the first one I read and I loved it. Now I can't wait to read more of her books in this series.
Thank you for a wonderful story and what I believe will be a great series.
sara18's review against another edition
3.0
There was no amazing amateur-detective work that solved the case - the clues were handed to her and she withheld them from the cops. And she risked her job (and license to practice law) basically the entire book. At what point does it go from "I always have to save Carly" to "maybe I should save myself, too?"
I'm only giving it 3 stars because the story was well-paced and I couldn't figure out the killer before the end.
Other complaints:
Willa's complaints about the keeping-up-with-the-Jones attitude of Tampa society - sure, it's nice when someone leaves you a mortgage-free house and you're already driving high-end cars. And don't have kids to send to private school
The comments about Priscilla's weight, and the wondering how long she'd have to run to work off the calories from the cookies. Just enjoy the cookie! It added nothing to the story and made me wonder if the author even noticed the similarity between those comments as compared to Morgan's rant about how women will do anything to look beautiful
I'm only giving it 3 stars because the story was well-paced and I couldn't figure out the killer before the end.
Other complaints:
Willa's complaints about the keeping-up-with-the-Jones attitude of Tampa society - sure, it's nice when someone leaves you a mortgage-free house and you're already driving high-end cars. And don't have kids to send to private school
The comments about Priscilla's weight, and the wondering how long she'd have to run to work off the calories from the cookies. Just enjoy the cookie! It added nothing to the story and made me wonder if the author even noticed the similarity between those comments as compared to Morgan's rant about how women will do anything to look beautiful
avidreadergirl1's review against another edition
4.0
After chapter 3, I realized that I had read that book as part of the Florida is Murder book duo. Now I've got to go for book #2 in the series.
This book was great and I totally got in line with Willa Carson's way of thinking. Great books to get to know Willa and her entourage.
This book was great and I totally got in line with Willa Carson's way of thinking. Great books to get to know Willa and her entourage.
itiselizabeth's review against another edition
2.0
Really quite average and predictable. Perfectly okay for a reasonably quick read but nothing worth recommending.
paulmslima's review against another edition
1.0
Not recommended, especially if you like a good 'who done it' with a strong narrative voice.
terriep's review
3.0
An easy-going, chatty read, written in the first person. The story is told by Willa Carson, a judge in Tampa, as she gets drawn into a mystery involving her sister, breast implant healthcare cases, murder, and more. The first of a continuing character series, the characters background is developed gradually thru the story and Willa and her husband have an enviable relationship, her sister, not-so-much.
This book would qualify as a nice quick summer read mystery. Pleasant, entertaining, not-too-gruesome, moves right along.
This book would qualify as a nice quick summer read mystery. Pleasant, entertaining, not-too-gruesome, moves right along.
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