Claim of Innocence
An Izzy McNeil Mystery by Laura Caldwell
Review: Chicago attorney Isabel "Izzy" McNeil hasn't practiced law in over a year — and certainly not criminal law — when a good friend urgently requests her assistance in defending a client of a murder charge in Claim of Innocence, the fourth mystery in this series by Laura Caldwell.
Izzy's life has been in turmoil. On the professional side, she set aside her law practice and first worked as a private investigator and then a reporter for Trial TV. On the personal side, her boyfriend Sam left her, only to reappear wanting to pick up where they left off. In the meantime, Izzy started dating Theo, who she adores being with … but isn't sure she really loves. Her "dead" father is suddenly not, and her remarried mother thinks Izzy should take time to get to know him. Maybe criminal defense attorney Maggie Bristol's offer to assist her in defending Valerie Solara would be just the ticket to take her mind off everything else. Valerie is charged with murdering her best friend Amanda, the motive being to clear a path to take up with Amanda's husband. Maggie simply wants to present a reasonable doubt defense for her client, but Izzy suspects Valerie isn't telling them all she knows and starts to dig into her past to discover what it is.
Claim of Innocence is more than just a very good legal thriller. It's about relationships between friends and lovers, parents and children, and more. The subplots strike a good balance between Izzy's demanding personal and professional lives, adding interest to both. A rare case of the sum of the parts being greater than the whole. Though it is not necessary to have read any of the previous entries in this series to enjoy this one, there is a overarching storyline here and new readers will almost certainly want to go back and check out how Izzy got to be in the situation she finds herself here.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Claim of Innocence.
Acknowledgment: Meryl L. Moss Media Relations provided a copy of Claim of Innocence for this review.
Review Copyright © 2011 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Location(s) referenced in Claim of Innocence: Chicago, Illinois
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Claim of Innocence by Laura Caldwell
Publisher: Mira Books
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN-10: 0-7783-2932-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2932-9
Publication Date: August 2011
List Price: $7.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): It was a crime of passion—or so the police say. Valerie Solara has been charged with poisoning her best friend. The prosecution claims she's always been secretly attracted to Amanda's husband … and with Amanda gone, she planned to make her move.
Attorney Izzy McNeil left the legal world a year ago, but a friend's request pulls her into the murder trial. Izzy knows how passion can turn your life upside down. She thought she had it once with her ex-fiancé, Sam. Now she wonders if that's all she has in common with her criminally gorgeous younger boyfriend, Theo.
It's Izzy's job to present the facts that will exonerate her client—whether or not she's innocent. But when she suspects Valerie is hiding something, she begins investigating—and uncovers a web of secret passions and dark motives, where seemingly innocent relationships can prove poisonous …