Murder in Brief

Hannah Barlow #1

by Carroll Lachnit

Hoping a career in law will enable her to pursue a different form of justice, ex-cop Hannah Barlow becomes alarmed when her moot-court partner, a wealthy, promising student, is accused of plagiarism and then murdered. Original.

Genres: Mystery

1 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

Reviews

[Cheryl]

I am trying to put my finger on why I didn't enjoy this book more. Usually a cozy-type mystery is a delight for me and a quick read. Given that this book focused a lot on the law school experience, which I survived, and actually had a plausible premise for why the main character was trying to figure things out beyond just being nosy should have made it an even better experience. It was not. After some debate while plodding through this, I realized it was not that it brought up memories of the stress of law school, although it was a pretty decent portrayal of it. (My school was much smaller and allegedly had a more strenuous honor code, but didn't really go to these lengths to enforce it.) And I liked the main character and her friend Bobby and little Teddy. So why was it just 'okay'?

Some of it was that I didn't follow the clues that well -- I am still not sure how the two different mysteries that resulted in the dead dude's death fit together, or if they really do other than the dead dude, but I think they are supposed to. Some of it was that I didn't get attached to the main characters, despite liking them, and I didn't care quite as much about whether the mystery was solved. Many of the secondary characters seemed to be treated too shallowly, just there to advance the plot without having a lot of personality themselves (Lois, for instance). All in all, I finished this book mostly because I wanted to cross it off my list and not because I was that into solving the mystery.

[Rita]

This book was good, an easy read. The characters developed nicely and you were invested by chap 2. I enjoyed the legal aspect of it as well.