book review: Judgment Calls by Alafair Burke

-
The backstory: After reading and loving Alafair Burke's stand alone novel, Long Gone (my review), I knew I wanted to read all of her novels.

The basics: Judgment Calls is the first in Burke's Samantha Kincaid series. Kincaid is a prosecutor in Portland, Oregon, as Burke was when she wrote this novel.

My thoughts: This novel begins as a legal procedural. As someone fascinated by the law and its differences, hearing about the legal system in Portland, Oregon was intriguing. Burke shared details to enhance the reader's understanding of the law, and these details added depth and nuance to the mysteries at the center of this novel:
"The law requires mandatory minimum sentences for the most violent felonies. Not surprisingly, once Measure 11 defendants figured out they were facing long minimum sentences upon conviction, whether they pled out or not, they stopped pleading guilty and started rolling the dice at trial. As a result, the DA's office stopped filing charged that fell under Measure 11 unless the bureau's investigation was flawless."
I loved those insights and details about unintended consequences to well meaning laws and policies.

As the novel and the legal case move forward, the action shifts from legal procedural to a thrilling mystery. Samantha's personal life was threaded throughout the novel, and as a character I completely fell in love with her. Not only do I want her to prosecute sex crimes cases in the real world, but I also want her to be my friend and discuss the world over a bottle (or two) of wine. It's rare to find a character in a mystery who is as compelling as the mystery itself. Samantha Kincaid is remarkably well developed in this novel, and I'm eager to continue following her adventures in the next two novels.

The verdict: Judgment Calls is a nearly perfect legal procedural and mystery. Burke combines a character you can root for with a case that's compelling, intriguing, and so much more twisted than it initially appears.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Length: 364 pages
Publication date: July 1, 2003
Source: purchased for my Kindle

Convinced? Treat yourself! Buy Judgment Calls from an independent bookstore, the Book Depository or Amazon (Kindle version.)

As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

Comments

  1. JennaJune 20, 2012 at 6:14 PM

    So glad to know that Burke doesn't disappoint with her earlier work! I've been thinking about starting one of her series, but there was always a fear that it wouldn't live up to her stand alone work. From your review, this is one mystery series that I definitely plan to follow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nomadreaderJune 22, 2012 at 9:31 AM

      Jenna, I'm almost done with the second in this series and am also enjoying it. The Samathana Kincaid series are more legal mysteries than Long Gone was, but the structure and scope of the cases are still amazing.

      Delete
  2. JennyJune 20, 2012 at 9:23 PM

    I love legal procedurals! I just added this author to my list. I need to read both this one and the other book you read by her!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nomadreaderJune 22, 2012 at 9:32 AM

      If you love legal procedurals, then you will enjoy this series:-)

      Delete
  3. AnonymousJune 20, 2012 at 11:48 PM

    While I do not typically go for legal mysteries, I am trying to expand my reading a bit and this sounds like a promising read. Thank you for your review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nomadreaderJune 22, 2012 at 9:32 AM

      FABR, it's hard to know if you'd like this if you don't enjoy the genre, but I think it's pretty fabulous. I am quite fascinated by the law, though. If you do read it, I'll be curious how you like it!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the fir
Read more