Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni
| Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Kerry King
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| Summary: Vince LaRussa is facing a life sentence for the grisly murder of his wheelchair-bound wife. Can Keera Duggan step up to the plate in her father's failing criminal defence law firm and show her prowess as a defence attorney and fulfil her family's legacy or will a twist in the trail of evidence derail the case, the firm and her career? | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 396 | Date: March 2023 |
| Publisher: Thomas & Mercer | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1662500190 | |
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Patrick Duggan & Associates has been the life's work of Patsy Duggan – rather charmingly nicknamed 'The Irish Brawler' due to his reputation for no holds barred courtroom performances in defence of his clients. Along with an indisputable talent for the law, Patsy also has a gift for drinking himself to oblivion and inevitably the latter was beginning to overshadow the former.
Enter Keera Duggan, former competitive chess prodigy and proven Seattle Prosecutor who finds herself in the hideous position of asking her father for a job at the family firm because a romantic entanglement with a senior colleague, Miller Ambrose, had gone, rather spectacularly, south.
As the most junior member of the family firm – Patsy at the helm and her two older sisters serving as Managing and Senior Partners – Keera is left to do the donkey work. Resentful of being forced to leave her job within the Prosecutor's department, Keera is looking for any opportunity to prove her worth and when Vince LaRussa, a wealth management luminary, retains Duggan & Associates to defend him following his arrest for the murder of his wheelchair-bound heiress wife, Keera sees her chance to play in the major leagues.
Quickly finding herself up to her neck in a string of evidentiary elements that do not add up, Keera is compelled to do the detective work herself and follow what amounts to a tiny trail of breadcrumbs. How can she defend her client to best of her ability of she has not uncovered the clues and reveal the bare bones of this mystery? If she is to begin to build a picture of what really happened the night of Anne LaRussa's murder and bid for the life of her client she must roll up her sleeves. The case, she discovers it is most assuredly not even slightly cut and dried. Hot on her investigative heels is the case detective, Frank Rossi, a man with a working history with Keera from her days in the Prosecutor's Office and whom is wrestling with something of a monster crush on her. Frank is professional and stalwart in spite of his feelings for Keera and his old-school approach is the toolbox that they will both need if she is ever to find the truth. Thankfully, Frank is just as determined as Keera is.
Will Keera ever untangle the twists in the case that could potentially derail her fledgling career as a defence attorney and deliver the final nail in the coffin of Duggan & Associates' reputation? Can Frank help Keera stay afloat in the mire of shocking revelations that follow, one after another after another? You will have to get your hands on a copy and find out!
Well, it's been a while since I have had a page turner like this in my hands. I was hooked from page two which is unusual with legal thrillers; I find it takes me a bit to warm to the characters – they are lawyers after all! Keera was instantly likeable and her difficult relationship with Patsy was presented to the reader in a very relatable way. Having a father who had been at her side as she climbed the ranks within the Chess World and making her mark as a prodigiously talented player had been the defining characterisation of their relationship. When Patsy shows up drunk at a competition, Keera carves him out of her life and her journey in rebuilding both her trust in Patsy and volunteering to salvage both his and the firm's reputation had given her a purpose again since departing the Seattle Prosecutor's office.
Dugoni has a remarkable skill in drawing the personae of his characters. I can't believe I have never read any of his books before since I particularly enjoy clever legal drama both in print and on television. I found his writing style reminiscent of John Grisham; specifically, in their mutual ability to fasten the book to your hand from the moment you begin reading!
The story told is fast-paced and gripping and just when you think you have figured out the sequence of events, Dugoni throws you a curve ball that smacks you straight in the forehead because you never saw it coming. He keeps the suspense alive until the absolute last minute and the reveal is stunning. What a great book… what a story-teller… Dugoni is gifted and in no small measure. Read this book, I implore you because you will love it and recommend it to everyone you know.
I found I drew some comparisons between Her Deadly Game and Gray Mountain – a story of the little guy finding themselves in the big leagues and if you love a Grisham novel, then you should also take a look at Grisham's The Racketeer which is a fantastic read. If you like your crime thrillers to be a little more home grown and from this side of the pond, perhaps Stay Buried by Kate Webb would be to your liking – it was most certainly to ours.
We at Bookbag would like to thank the publishers for providing this copy for us to review.
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