Entreated by partner and boyfriend Harry Madigan to defend a wealthy woman--Harry's former lover--who has been accused of murdering her husband, Cape Cod attorney Marty Nickerson doubts her own instincts in the wake of mounting evidence, a situation that is complicated by the defendant's seductive personality. 25,000 first printing.
Rose Connors is an author of mystery fiction. She has written four books about her fictional attorney Marty Nickerson, but hasn't been published in more than a decade. Connors, whose debut novel, Absolute Certainty, won the Mary Higgins Clark Award, grew up in Philadelphia and received her law degree from Duke in 1984.
I read the third installment in the Marty Nickerson series for a Book by a Massachusetts Author category in my library book bingo challenge. In this novel Marty ends up defending a law school classmate and ex-lover of Harry’s whose husband ends up dead. The storyline was fine but I didn’t feel the same energy as with the previous two books. Still, always lovely to read something based in my beloved Chatham. 3.5⭐️
Love this book and this series! Marty is the unlikeliest heroine, but only because no one writes a heroine like Rose Connors. Earthy, earnest, and ethical, Marty is a woman you could really be proud to be, warts and all. In a landscape of tortured, overly pretty young things solving mysteries with gun-toting studs and tormented mentors, the Marty Nickerson series is a serious pleasure: expertly and unexpectedly plotted, there is no formula that Connors won't break.
Not as good as her other books, but excellent nonetheless. The factor of the old girlfriend wasn't written well -- the character interactions.
Also, I am sorry she didn't write the way that Marty and Harry got together except as a memory. That suspense would have been nice as the characters developed.
Still enjoyable and if she'd write mroe I'd read them.
Another local author book based here on Cape Cod - unfortunately, it appears that she has stopped wrsting novels for now as there are no more in this series - I was returning the book to the library and Rose Connors was coming out and she said, hey that is my book - small world
Maximum Security, by Rose Connors. A. narrated by Anna Fields, produced by Blackstone Audio.
Well this is the last one in the series that is currently available as an audio book. I hope there are more to come. This book finds one main case, and the case is Marty’s. This is because the woman she is representing, Louisa Rawlings, is an old girl friend of Harry’s. Louisa’s husband has disappeared. His body is found one week later, and it is clear he has been murdered. Louisa, his wife is the main suspect for a variety of reasons, she’s the only one to profit by his will, there’s a life insurance policy with a double indemnity clause, the death seemed to be made to look like a suicide, and the weapon had her finger prints on it. But Marty, although irritated with Louisa’s “southern charms” and her ability to charm any male in her view, including the judge, does not believe she committed the murder. Again we see trial scenes, Marty and Geraldine, (the prosecutor) going at it, and other marginal characters who always people these mysteries. I hope there will be more of them.
If you picked up a book called Maximum Security, wouldn't you expect that the main character would be in prison, in that state? Well, no, this was just a threat for a woman whose husband ends up dead. She is being represented by three lawyers--one a former lover, another who is a woman, and the third a young man whom she beds. There is a disagreeable step daughter, a financial advisor who shows up just two days after the man goes missing--what's with that? It is fairly amusing and entertaining.
I did not really care for this book. I read and enjoyed the first two books in the series, but this one just fell flat for me. The dialogue was really stilted, and the attempts at humor felt stiff and awkward. To top it all off, it was more of a traditional mystery than a courtroom drama like the first two, and the mystery itself wasn't even that good. The solution to the mystery was telegraphed from very early on, and the final reveal was lackluster and felt rushed. I probably won't continue with the Marty Nickerson series after this one.
I wish Rose Connors was more prolific, because her novels are always a great ride, and this book is no exception. I love her main character, Marty Nickerson, a Cape Cod former assistant DA turned defender. As courtroom novels go, Connors' are some of the most fun. This book was slightly less suspenseful than some of her other tales, but still worth the read.
I bought this in a used book store on Cape Cod looking for local books. It's set on the cape and written by someone who lives there. Here's hoping the story's as good as the cape :-)
I enjoyed this. The story was good and it was a fun easy read.
Louisa is one slick lady. She goes to one of her old boyfriends when she needs an attorney. Gets his lady friend to be her attorney. Finds a boy toy, with her husband just missing. Goes to jail with her stepdaughter pushing for that. This is a good story line. I liked it.
I would give this book a grade of only fair in a series of books that are generally much better than fair. If you like courtroom drama/mysteries, this series is generally a good choice. This particular book was somewhat uninspired. I was able to see the "whodunnit" almost immediately.
Good balance of character & plot. I've enjoyed the series thus far. Interesting to have a character who has been on both sides of the legal advocacy / criminal justice system.