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A review by cheryl6of8
First Kill All the Lawyers by Sarah Shankman
2.0
I originally picked up this book because I am a lawyer and I like mystery novels, so the title seemed up my alley. Not a bad mystery all in all, although I really could care less about the upper crust of Atlanta or any other Southern city (or Northern, Eastern, or Western for that matter -- but the concept of Southern charm is vastly overrated, mostly by Southerners). Sam Adams, hotshot woman crime reporter, newly returned to her home town wants to do an article on the corruption of rural county sheriffs. It is a good idea -- I mean, it was in the late 2000's that one rural country sheriff in the South murdered the man who beat him in the election because his corruption would be exposed -- but it kind of gets bootstrapped onto the question of what happened to the law partner of Sam's Uncle George. Forrest Ridley is touted as a fine upstanding honest and ethical lawyer and part of the upper crust, which is practically unheard of, and the main characters still seem to feel that way at the end of the book.
{Spoiler Alert -- After learning about his affair with a much younger woman and the casual reference to marijuana being found in their illicit love nest, I did not find him so fine upstanding honest and ethical, even if he wasn't violating all the rules of Professional Conduct like every other still practicing lawyer in the book. I say still practicing, because Uncle George is retired and seems to be more of a decent dude than the vaunted Forrest Ridley.}
The mystery was decent, although the bootstrapping of the drug question was a little hamhanded in my opinion and I don't really see how Sam got a story of corrupt rural sheriffs out of the problems in the one backwater county, but oh well. The thing that I was most irritated by, although it was likely meant to be a running thread through the remainder of the series I will likely never read, was the subplot about the romance with Beau. That is probably in large part due to the fact that I burned out on Harlequin-style romance novels which involve the innocent young woman whose first lover was a db and left her high-and-dry without a second though, wrecking her life entirely despite the fact that she gains some professional success and then when she returns to town is still as attractive as ever, has seen the error of his ways, and wants her back but she is tied up in knots with doubt (although it is clear that she will take him back). Grow up and grow a pair of ovaries, honey, and tell him where to get off then forget he ever existed!
{Spoiler Alert -- After learning about his affair with a much younger woman and the casual reference to marijuana being found in their illicit love nest, I did not find him so fine upstanding honest and ethical, even if he wasn't violating all the rules of Professional Conduct like every other still practicing lawyer in the book. I say still practicing, because Uncle George is retired and seems to be more of a decent dude than the vaunted Forrest Ridley.}
The mystery was decent, although the bootstrapping of the drug question was a little hamhanded in my opinion and I don't really see how Sam got a story of corrupt rural sheriffs out of the problems in the one backwater county, but oh well. The thing that I was most irritated by, although it was likely meant to be a running thread through the remainder of the series I will likely never read, was the subplot about the romance with Beau. That is probably in large part due to the fact that I burned out on Harlequin-style romance novels which involve the innocent young woman whose first lover was a db and left her high-and-dry without a second though, wrecking her life entirely despite the fact that she gains some professional success and then when she returns to town is still as attractive as ever, has seen the error of his ways, and wants her back but she is tied up in knots with doubt (although it is clear that she will take him back). Grow up and grow a pair of ovaries, honey, and tell him where to get off then forget he ever existed!