Unplanned and Second Hand
"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope" - Dr Seuss
"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." - Mark Twain
Accused by Mark Gimenez
Renowned Texas lawyer A. Scott is a single father trying to raise two teenage girls, facing a career dilemna and plagued by regret and loneliness. Out of the blue he receives a desperate phone call from his ex-wife Rebecca - who has been charged with murdering golfing sensation she left him for. Unable to afford an attorney, A. Scott can either risk his reputation and career to defend the woman who divorced him, or watch the mother of his children disappear behind bars for life.
The good points: the story is set up well and there are several nice twists as the case unfolds. The final chapters are riveting and are page turners in the purest sense. The not-so-good point: the middle of the book drags, with many barely interesting and highly skippable chapters.
Rebecca is a strange character, who like the rest of A. Scott's suspects never seems either entirely guilty or entirely innocent, and the ending is never clear. For this and for the suspense the book is worth reading. Half legal thriller half whodunnit Accused builds up to a terrific courtroom climax and keeps you hanging till the very end - but leaves you meandering unnecessarily beforehand.
