Mitigating Circumstances (Lily Forrester, Bk 1)
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
Anna L. (annalovesbooks) reviewed on
ISBN 0451176723 - Almost a sister to Nancy Wagner's All Our Lives (ISBN 0380778084), Mitigating Circumstances is not quite as good. Both books deal with a family dealing with the rape of a daughter and a marriage that's fallen apart, but Wagner's is just a little bit better.
Lily Forrester is an ADA who has just been made head of the Sex Crimes Division and sees her goal of becoming a judge within sight when her marriage finally unravels. Her daughter chooses to live with her father, but spends a fateful night at her mother's. The timing couldn't be worse, as a man who has been watching Lily is released from prison and stalks her to her new home and assaults mother and daughter.
Her own childhood abuse coupled with the horror of watching her own daughter raped drives Lily right over that vigilante line and she seeks justice outside the courtroom for the first time in her life. Now her career, her daughter, her marriage, her freedom, her sanity and her budding relationship with a fellow ADA are all on the line as one very good detective looks for answers.
The sex in this book tends toward graphic and violent and some of it is remarkably unnecessary, which wasn't too surprising since the main character works in Sex Crimes, but I did find a bit much now and then. Also a little off-putting was the sense that "all Latinos look alike", although that does get explained as "she wasn't wearing her glasses" - not a good excuse, but an excuse. On the funny side, Lily is a lawyer with a young teenaged daughter who borrows her clothes, which would be fine if they weren't her WORK clothes! No teenage girl wants to dress like their lawyer mother, unless their lawyer mother dresses really unprofessionally.
All in all, kind of an average book that would have benefitted greatly if Detective Cunningham had had a larger role and if John, Lily's husband had been an even remotely sympathetic character.
- AnnaLovesBooks
Lily Forrester is an ADA who has just been made head of the Sex Crimes Division and sees her goal of becoming a judge within sight when her marriage finally unravels. Her daughter chooses to live with her father, but spends a fateful night at her mother's. The timing couldn't be worse, as a man who has been watching Lily is released from prison and stalks her to her new home and assaults mother and daughter.
Her own childhood abuse coupled with the horror of watching her own daughter raped drives Lily right over that vigilante line and she seeks justice outside the courtroom for the first time in her life. Now her career, her daughter, her marriage, her freedom, her sanity and her budding relationship with a fellow ADA are all on the line as one very good detective looks for answers.
The sex in this book tends toward graphic and violent and some of it is remarkably unnecessary, which wasn't too surprising since the main character works in Sex Crimes, but I did find a bit much now and then. Also a little off-putting was the sense that "all Latinos look alike", although that does get explained as "she wasn't wearing her glasses" - not a good excuse, but an excuse. On the funny side, Lily is a lawyer with a young teenaged daughter who borrows her clothes, which would be fine if they weren't her WORK clothes! No teenage girl wants to dress like their lawyer mother, unless their lawyer mother dresses really unprofessionally.
All in all, kind of an average book that would have benefitted greatly if Detective Cunningham had had a larger role and if John, Lily's husband had been an even remotely sympathetic character.
- AnnaLovesBooks
