The Good Lawyer by Thomas Benigno

3.5 Stars

The Good Lawyer begins with the main character, Nick Mannino, winning a case defending a guilty man of rape.  He is looking back and thinking about the victim Dina Rios, his guilt for letting a guilty person go free.  This happens when he is going to see potential client that is charged with molestation of three boys.  Nick has another case, “The Spiderman” that is another rape case and he takes on as a favor. 

Nick works for Legal Aid, has a mobster uncle, a single mother and a rich girlfriend that is the Assistant District Attorney in lower Manhattan.  There are enough twists, action and relationship drama to appeal to most.  The subject is dark dealing with AIDs, child molestation and rape.  Oh, there is a religious element thrown in the mix too, just for fun.

I liked the book and after I read it I thought about it a bit deeper and started to see more to the story than just basic story.  The cases play against each other.  They deal with stereotypes and what is generally accepted as upstanding behavior and what is not.  I’m known to over analyze, but Mr. Benigno has something to say in this book.  I liked the message.

A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion

      4 stars

The books I read seem to go from a warm and cozy feel good book to mystery, violence and sometime scary books.  I’m not sure why.   I put Karen McQuestion’s A Scattered Life on my Amazon Wish list in March of 2011 and read it last month.     I consistently seem drawn to books that have main characters that discover something.  If it is a “girly” book it is generally learning something about herself or her life.  Skyla, the main character, is no different.  She is a loner and the description of her life and thoughts at the beginning of the book made me wonder what it would be like to have a life without a family; a base to ground you and keep you from simply floating away.  I come from a fairly large family and the first time I was alone in my house I was seventeen years old and I think I was alone for 30 minutes.  Obviously, I haven’t a clue what not having a family is like at all.

The book centers around the female characters.  Skyla, a spirited woman that has married Thomas, the most serious, stable and unexciting man I could possibly imagine.  Roxanne, an unorganized maternal mother of five small children and still wanting more.  Finally, Audrey, Skyla’s mother-in-law, is a bit June Cleaverish and very judgmental.  The roles these different women play in each other’s lives is portrayed differently than you might expect.  Support, unconditional love and the ability to realize that “most people have everything they need to be happy” if they just open their eyes and look is the book’s premise.

Trinity Game by Sean Chercover

    3 stars

This book sounded interesting to me right from the start.  As I’ve grown older I’ve become increasingly interested in Christian claims and truths.  My main conflict with most groups is there is always an outsider and I wanted to see if The Trinity Games addressed any of human flaws of the Catholic Church.  I’m not sure why I thought that this book was the answer to all of my many questions.

Daniel Byrne works for the Devil’s Advocate, a secret organization within the Vatican.  OOOO, now you are talking.  Daniel is looking for a miracle; literally, looking for miracles.  Though his 10-year search has taken him across the world he has not validated one miracle.  It is suggested to Daniel that perhaps he needs to work on his faith.  That maybe the reason he researches miracles is because he is looking for proof that God exists.  Of course this is going to change now that his next case is investigating his uncle, an TV evangelist. 

Daniel was raise by his uncle, Tim Trinity, and ran away in his teens because Tim is a fraud.  Tim doesn’t believe, never did believe.  Now he is talking in tongues and predicting the future…accurately.  This makes Tim very unpopular and the action begins.  During the course of the book trust is broken, new relationships develop and we are told that God only has one rule, “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”  Didn’t we learn that in kindergarten?

It wasn’t what I expected and began to become predictable as the book progressed, but not a bad read and was entertaining.