La consulente

by Jeffery Deaver, Valentina Ricci (Translator)

La giovane Taylor Lockwood divide le sue giornate tra il lavoro di praticante in un prestigioso studio legale di New York e le serate come pianista jazz nel locali più pittoreschi della città. Ma la sua vita cambia all'improvviso quando uno degli avvocati dello studio, l'intrigante Mitchell Reece, le affida un compito a dir poco delicato: scoprire chi ha rubato il prezioso documento che potrebbe distruggergli la carriera e mandare a rotoli un affare milionario. Sedotta dal fascino dell'imperscrutabile Reece, Taylor accetta l'incarico. Ma più scava nei segreti della Hubbard, White & Willis, più la posta in gioco si fa alta: perché qualcuno è disposto a tutto pur di veder realizzati i propri sinistri piani, e la sete di verità che sprona Taylor a proseguire nelle indagini rischia ogni ora di più di esserle fatale. In una New York torbida e scintillante, tra i jazz club pieni di fumo e gli asettici palazzi in cui si gioca la spietata partita del potere, Deaver dà vita a un thriller pieno di personaggi e situazioni inedite, di tensione e di atmosfera.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Crime, Legal Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Suspense

466 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

#1 international bestselling author of over thirty novels and three collections of short stories. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another stand alone thriller from the pen of Jeffery Deaver. Have to say he knows how to write a thriller.
This time round Jeffery Deaver puts a microscope on the lawyers of Wall St. I wonder, if before starting this book Mr. Deaver had had a run in with the legal profession. Because none of the lawyers in this story come out smelling of roses. They all come over as scheming, manipulative, deceitful, money hungry whores.
On the upside, there's lots of characters to dislike. The heroin of the story is Taylor Lockwood, a paralegal working for the aforementioned whores. Taylor gets seconded to Mitchell Reece, a lawyer at the firm. An important piece of paper has been stolen from Mitchell's office and he wants Taylor to not only find the piece of paper but also the person who stole it. The further Taylor delves the deeper in the poo she gets. There is no one, and I mean no one, she can trust. Things escalate to the point where Taylor's life is in danger.

There are twists, turns, dead ends and red herrings all over the place. And as for the end, it's fair to say that I was gobsmacked.

The story has a lot of characters and got a bit convoluted in places but in the end it was a satisfying, entertaining read.
Recommended for lovers of thrillers and all things legal. 4 stars.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this as a cheap kindle download since I am a Deaver fan but had not read this early work. As a writer, Deaver is organized and fastidious and he evidently went back and re-wrote this one, tightening it up where necessary. Certainly admirable for an early effort and it contains the plot twists and turns he is noted for, but seems a bit overpopulated, not only in the number of characters but in the number of plot directions. A bit too staged in many places but the female protagonist is an interesting and sympathetic character even though the rest seem a bit 2 dimensional. Still, a three star read by Deaver is better than most; helped me pass the time during my lunchtime "mental health breaks".

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeffery Deaver is one of those authors I have been meaning to pick up for a very long time. I constantly see his work in bookstores. His books appear in my recommendations. People I know have enjoyed his work. Therefore, it was about time that I picked up one of his books.

From what I can gather Mistress of Justice was not the best place to start my expedition into Jeffery Deaver’s work. From what I can gather, this isn’t the best example of his work. Due to this, I’m not going to base my entire judgement of Jeffery Deaver upon this one book. I have more of his work to read – I found quite a few going cheap and opted to grab them – and I’m hoping the future books I read will be more enjoyable.

I’m not saying Mistress of Justice was a bad book. I had highs and lows with it; I merely expected something more. As I said, I know many who have enjoyed his work. With this one, I found there were times when I was really interested, and then there were certain elements that really bored me. Like I said – highs and lows. Up and downs. When I was pulled into the story, I was really pulled in. When I was bored, well… I could put the book down and forget about it. I’m crossing my fingers that the future Jeffery Deaver books I read will contain more of the highs – I’ve seen it in reading this there clearly is the potential for great things, hence my belief in having started with the wrong book.

For me, I think my big issue is that there was too much happening in this story. There were multiple elements and the story kept shifting which of the characters was being followed in that moment. I rather enjoy stories with multiple interlinked elements – in fact, I favour when such is the case – yet I’m not a fan of the shifting viewpoint. I’d much rather stick to one person. In fact, I know such would have made this more enjoyable. A lot of my waxing and waning interest was based upon which character a scene involve. That’s just a reflection of my personal preference, though.

As my first Jeffery Deaver book, it was an okay read. It’s certainly left me interested in reading more, but it has not made me a lifelong fan.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good legal thriller set in New York on Wall Street. Taylor Lockwood a paralegal is asked by hotshot lawyer Michael Reece to find a missing promissory note. She then encounters machinations by the senior partners. One wants to stay as they are and the other to form a merger and get rid of the deadwood at the firm.

Taylor follows several red herrings and escapes some sticky situations. A murder and the person she thinks is the murderer isn’t.

The ending fits nicely and makes sense and a good twist with the boardroom confrontation.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Michael the murderer is fooled into confessing and when he goes to shoot her finds he has been set up with a gun that doesn’t fire.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, confusing, annoying. This is one of his early books, re-written a decade or so later (supposedly to make it more exciting - I dread to think what the original is like: presumably it's missing the trademark cliff-hanger chapter endings where the heroine is left in mortal danger... Except she isn't. Again.
Set in a New York legal firm, this has paralegal and 3rd rate piano player Taylor being asked to investigate the theft of a valuable document from the company's most hard-working lawyer, the handsome Mitchell Reece. Senior partners are conspiring to force a merger and everyone is spying on each other while the associates take lots of drugs and sleep around a lot to get through the long hours and tedium of their daily grind towards partnership. Then people start dying and Taylor has to work out who's the most evil of he lot.
The moral of this story is that all lawyers are bastards. I didn't enjoy it and while I made it to the end, I wouldn't waste your time, stick with the early Lincoln Rhyme books.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly passable legal thriller, although I didn't find it hugely exciting. We follow Taylor, a paralegal in a big law firm who has been asked to look into the theft of an important document from a colleague's office. What follows is the usual tale containing several suspects, twists and turns, mortal danger, and a pretty stale romance.

It was just OK, a solid 3 stars for me.

[Beatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my third Jeffery Deaver book (though I still have to read The Bone Collector!), and I have to say I was expecting a little bit more than I got with this one. Mistress of Justice wasn't a bad read by any means, but it just didn't quite meet my expectations.

First off, let me say that I LOVE legal thrillers. I don't mind long courtroom scenes, or the descriptions of endless hours of research and detailed explanations of finer legal points. But here, there is a lot of telling rather than showing. And for me it just ended up making the story move really slowly. I was expecting a lot more excitement and nail-biting suspence than I got. But even so, I still found it interesting enough to read, and I was curious about where it would end up. Because I was so sure that there would be a big twist at the end that I wouldn't see coming. I mean, I was starting to think it would end one way, but the big reveal would prove wrong. Right? Wrong! Turns out the unpredictable ending was actually really pretty predictable. And that is just plain disappointing.

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I did really like Taylor, though! She's smart and driven, she knows what she wants and fights to get it. I loved the depth her character had, and how hard she struggled to keep fighting for her dreams. The rest of the cast I wasn't as impressed with. Where Taylor is developed very well, all the other characters seem very one-dimensional and experience very little (if any) growth throughout the book. A few of them were so dull and unremarkable that I kept mixing them up even well into the book!

Overall, this was an entertaining book, but hardly one that I will re-read anytime soon.

Originally published on Book for Thought.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great legal thriller. No clue who the real villain was till revealed at the end. Fast moving. . Couldn’t sleep and read fin 2:45 am-all day -to finish.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good 4.5 read. I do really enjoy the better Jeffery Deaver singles.

[ReAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great mystery. Didn't really figure out who the bad guy was till the very end. Great character involvement!

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two-haiku review:

She's paralegal
Asked to find stolen paper
Puts her in danger

Complicated plot
Exciting parts and dull parts
Very shocking end

[Pisces51 · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Review 3.5 STARS

I have been an enthusiastic and loyal fan of Deaver since the 1990's and this book was purchased early last year (2019) when I stumbled across it at a sale price. My focus has been on Deaver's intellectually stimulating and entertaining Lincoln Rhyme books since last year when I started reading the entire series in chronological order. Most recently I re-read THE KILL ROOM [2013].

MISTRESS OF JUSTICE [1992] is truly "early Deaver". In "The Author's Note" he states that the book was almost completely rewritten 13 years following his completion of the initial manuscript. Based upon his remarks ("The current edition stands true to its view of Wall Street in the chaotic era of the 1980's..") and the fact that he dated the Author's Notes J.D. 2001), it seems almost like a math quiz to calculate when this current incarnation (the one I just read) was originally published. I'll leave this question to be submitted as a potential trivia question.

Our story's protagonist is the likable, smart and independent Taylor Lockwood. The heroine works by day as a paralegal in a prestigious law firm while she quietly pursues a law degree, and after hours she routinely plays jazz music in a night club.

This book was admittedly "jazzed up" by Deaver (pun intended), practically all of it if you read the Author's Notes. It is suggested that the original manuscript was just "not all that" by the author's own admission. He proceeded to rewrite it with a more experienced, seasoned, and talented hand, to insert thrills here and there throughout the narrative that would enrich the reading experience for his fans and new readers alike. There was the anticipated rich character development, a colorful cast of callous cads and ruthless Romeos, all amidst the backdrop of a bustling Manhattan sky line, Wall Street madness, and what could be construed as a challenging whodunit for mystery lovers.

That said, 25% into the novel, set in New York against the back drop of Wall Street, I was frankly bored, eyelids drooping. Taylor Lockwood a paralegal at an old prestigious law firm is recruited by handsome litigator Mitchell Reece to find a stolen document. Taylor is busily putting her own spin on doing Nancy Drew. The firm itself is rife with intrigue; the powerful and "respectably" rich Wendell Clayton is planning a coup tied to a merger. Donald Burdick of the "old money" clique (and an additional 24 of his cronies) to be out in the cold as part of the deal. It was not fast-moving or at all riveting, but nevertheless interesting and amusing at times. I felt the bottom line was that the story line needed to do a 180.

Passed the 33% mark and did enjoy Reece going in as a pinch hitter to save the hospital's bacon (poised to lose a 30 million dollar medical malpractice suit---and the law firm's biggest client). But Taylor still running around trying to identify who opened the safe (or let someone else bypass the security). NOT like anything I've read by Deaver.

The main plot hinges on Taylor locating the purloined original Promissory Note signed by crooked HANOVER AND STIVER for $250,000, working as an "invisible" spy within the huge law practice. Reece will lose the trial case against the dishonest borrower Hanover and Stiver (and the firm's major client AMSTERDAM BANK AND TRUST would be ruined). 64% into the book it is literally the day before the New Amsterdam Trial, with "the merger" the competing plotline with Wendell Clayton and his smarmy protégé Randy Simms dueling with and plotting against the founders of the firm of (HUBBARD WHITE & WILLIS). Donald Burdick and cronies are at the helm of the resistance with his deadly counterpart (his powerful wife) beside him. Deaver is known for using compressed time lines to build momentum and suspense. In this case, it is still an interesting narrative, but not a compelling read in any traditional sense of the expression.

Both of the intertwined plot lines eventually converge as time runs out and the clock ticks down (to the trial and the meeting for the fate of the "merger"). In the interim our intrepid Taylor "spies" and investigates her heart out, while simultaneously her attraction and affinity for being between the sheets with the lanky handsome Reece grows proportionately). The attractive duo pretty much have things "sorted" as the Brits would say, and Deaver pulls out all the stops to thrill the reader with the exclamation point that comes with the long awaited trial. The outcome of the partners meeting for the decision about the "merger" is carried to a surprising conclusion and a long overdue injection of "caffeine" (adrenaline is far too strong a term) is delivered to the fatigued reader.

In the final portion of the novel, however, Deaver does what he does best. New readers will be intermittently stumped, angry, disappointed, and certainly surprised at almost every twist and turn until the last page and the final period of the last sentence. It is a rollercoaster ride full of adrenaline-laced thrills with the master of deception at the controls. I AM a long time fan and was smugly satisfied when he started to misdirect and control the story delivering a huge plot twist at the very end. I admit that I guessed the identity of the villain, albeit it was Deaver at his finest. I shouldn't even count the fact that I guessed the right culprit because for the life of me I couldn't work out the motive. Since it was there all the time, I feel like I always do at the end of a Deaver novel ( I think "better luck next time").

In the final analysis this is a tightly plotted complex little gem of a mystery novel. The action lags horribly until the point when the two subplots finally converge along the time line (and the real action begins in earnest with Deaver as the puppet-master I know and love). It is for the slow burn that I can't in clear conscience rate this novel any higher than I did.

One final point, and this is not a criticism necessarily, simply an observation. I commonly see Negative Customer Reviews of novels based solely on the author's deployment of what is generally considered profane language. I've read a lot of Deaver over the years and just never noted any profanity per se. This book uses the "f--- word" with abandon, and blasphemous epitaphs as well (g--damn). This novel contains a generous use of profanity for this author. It was jarring whenever I came across its use. I cannot honestly say whether the use of foul language was not in keeping with the setting and the story line or alternatively it was jarring because it was a Deaver novel.

[Alan Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of Jeffery Deaver's earlier books, dating back to the early nineties, but I was interested to see that it followed the formula used in his later books, especially the surprise ending. The book takes place in a law office with much feuding, fussing and fighting going on. Taylor Lockwood, the female protagonist, is a paralegal who is also a piano player. Fortunately, she's smarter than you might expect her to be or she wouldn't be alive at the end of the book. I've noticed that in stories about lawyers nobody ever actually sleeps, but if you can ignore minor details like this, there's an interesting plotline with lots of zigzags.

[Darcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I find this book to be very confusing. There are a lot of players on the scene, 2 different law firms, many paralegals, plus some back story from the past. Often people are referred to by either their first or last name and not together, so it made it hard to figure out who was in the story. It also seemed to me this book couldn't figure out what it wanted to be a law thriller or a spy novel. With all the confusion I gave it up as it wasn't worth me trying to wade through it.

[Elmer Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Offered as a legal-mystery-thriller, Mistress of Justice has a little of each but not enough of any to merit inclusion to those categories.

Certainly, Deaver has crafted (and in this case re-crafted) a serviceable, intelligently written, yet convoluted story. He builds out the initial crime of momentum that drives the plot, then paints the historical importance of Hubbard, White & Willis, law firm extraordinaire, then proceeds to show the reader every seedy, malignant subversion beneath the facade, as a merger is being considered.

We get two legal sequences in a court room setting, perhaps Deaver wants some of that John Grisham and/or Michael Connelly audience. Both sequences are predicated on the superior court tactics of Michael Reece, one to save the firm's bacon, and the other to save his own. Both are fine but never rise to the "OMG" level of tension or drama, which barely constitutes the legal category.

While the impending merger looms(distracts), our heroine, Taylor Lockwood (her full name as stated in nearly every scene she's in) plods through the firm's offerings of suspects. She is the daughter of a prominent attorney, currently a paralegal seeking out law school herself, plays piano at a local jazz dive bar, hustling to get a record deal, clearly too busy for a family or other vocation, about to take a mini vacation, and is somehow the chosen person to play the Sherlock Holmes role in finding the culprit and missing promissory note for an upcoming case (aka reason for reading about Taylor Lockwood.)

However, the macguffin of said promissory note draws an immediate red flag for me: Why wasn't it already submitted into/shown as evidence at the preliminary hearing justifying the case to start with? Much like an actual smoking gun, or EXHIBIT A (which it is), why would the lawyer be the one maintaining custody of critical evidence?? Let alone having it stolen from beneath the responsible? lawyer's nose. Once stolen, fails to inform his firm, as a diligent lawyer should about the theft and potential impact, instead of enacting the cowboy maneuver b$? Oversight committee anyone?

This prompts the faulty narrator clause in my brain because the reason for the Lockwood plot depends on a lie, who told the lie, and why then would I read about it? Why would the golden boy of the firm bother to create such a strategy of deceit? The cascade of ineptitude and pedantic nature of the lawyers involved becomes boring. From the druggies to the pedophiles pretending to be attorneys escorting the "granddaughter" around the office, the corporate spies aka wannabe stand-up comics in their spare time to the "man-whores" that attempt to bed every woman they meet, we get all of the stereotypes as fodder for suspects. Let alone the over-bearing and domineering firm power couple directing traffic.

All of this bluff and bluster of the merger and coincidental internal document theft is only camouflage for a late entry, and obliquely hidden, understory of revenge against the killer of one's pregnant girlfriend, perpetrated as a suicide with a love poem left as a suicide note?? I thought attorneys were supposed to be intelligent and well-read enough to tell the difference. Tired of following breadcrumbs yet?

By the third assassination attempt on Taylor Lockwood, it felt tiresome. Especially considering she was sleeping with, and near to falling in love with, the instigator. How dumb can this be? Did this guy not grieve for his recently deceased pregnant girlfriend at all that he is bedding his accomplice in his revenge plot?

We get a "Scooby-Doo reveal with trickery involved" ending but it really doesn't satisfy the intellectual injury after reading through the maze of disbelief. And Wendall Clayton was married the whole time? Sometimes less is more, in my final thought here.

If you have free time, say on a Trans-Atlantic flight, this book will suffice. I wouldn't promote Deaver's writing with this one though. Stick with Rhyme and Sachs books, they have better legs (and plots).

Thanks for reading.

[Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Jeffery Deaver’s earlier books. According to the Forward in the book, Deaver tells his readers that he’s actually “rewritten” the book. He was satisfied with his original story, but experience must have told him that he could have done a bit better -maybe make it a tad more suspenseful, flesh out the characters, and incorporate elements to suck in the reader a bit more. Regardless, whatever he did worked. Although I never read the original version, this book has all the elements that make the story a great thriller.

Now, I THINK that this original book was written before the days of John Grisham. I mention this because this book is a “legal” thriller, and it might be tempting to say that Deaver ripped off a lot of lawyer factoids and legal legends from Grisham. Whenever we read a John Grisham book about the profession, we read about people who care more about making gobs of money than actually being a crusader for law. Everyone works hundreds of hours per week and learns the secrets of manipulating the legal process etc. etc. We get a bit of that here, but those who know Jeffery Deaver know that he’s a very thorough researcher of his subjects, and if the original book was written back in 1992, we can safely say that Deaver “got there first”.

Our protagonist is Taylor Lockwood. She’s a late-twenties, single paralegal working for one of those mega Wall Street firms where power and cocaine rule. The firm is about to undergo a major merger that will affect the way the firm does business, as well as probably sever some payroll. Strange things start happening, and one of the smarter young lawyers, Mitchell Reece, can feel that unscrupulous behavior is in the air. When a crucial document goes missing, Mitchell “hires” Taylor to play detective to uncover the facts.

Not sure if such a situation would ever happen in the real world, but give Mitchell credit. He hired the right person. Taylor is hard core, and plows right into her ‘assignment’. We also get to learn and understand more about Taylor. Her overly ambitious lawyer-father, her moonlighting as a jazz pianist, and her calm resilience of who she is despite swimming in a sea of piranhas. Had this been a true story, I doubt if anyone could have been as successful as Taylor – she moves from point A to point B throughout the story quite fast, but truth belongs in non-fiction.

This book is also a lot less ‘creepy’ than many of Deaver’s works. True, we meet some characters that make us shudder a bit, but unlike the Lincoln Rhyme books that deal with demented psychopaths with strange fetishes, this one is rather harmless in comparison.

Although this is one of his earlier works, it’s definitely Deaver. If you like the majority of Jeffery Deaver’s books, this one won’t disappoint. I’m somewhat curious, however, to know how this ‘revised’ version stacks up against the ‘original’.

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished 25th november 2024 and system says i began reading same day not sure i agree thought it was day before kindle library loan and apparently i've read other stories from deaver three stars i liked it. in a forward deaver says he rewrote this story...was it thirteen years after it was first published? entertaining story about a number of cut-throat back-stabbing money-grubbing lawyers in a large established firm. and also, another variation on the frontier justice theme. and you know, considering the many variations, one comes to mind not portrayed that i'm aware of...like the fabled "january 6th"..."insurrection" wherein a force, a power, an entity pushes another force, power or lack thereof, entity to perform in a certain way to affect an outcome...the desired lack of any investigation into election irregularities. hey? that hasn't been done, has it? get the word out. anyway, entertaining story. but wait now...there is some of that push going on in this story...some i guess. potemkin villages as it were

[Gigi Be · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though legal dramas that take place outside the courtroom usually end up lackluster, Deaver brings quite some originality in his endeavour to spin a detective narrative without any heinous crime as a foundation. Taylor Lockwood is a charming and well-rounded heroine who seems to catch every man's attention which starts to become a little repetitive towards the end of the novel. However, her street smart skills make for a mostly gripping plot with a central cat-and-mouse chase at its core. The second section of the novel was full of surprises which almost hit the mark in terms of stun value. I was a bit put off by certain problematic relationships which were part of the various side-plots, however this may just be a generational difference from the time this novel was written. Overall, Deaver's suspenseful writing style and a refreshing main character breathes life into an otherwise mundane plot about company politics.

[Lagniappe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid legal thriller. Ace paralegal Taylor Lockwood is assigned to lawyer Mitchell Reece. An important document has been stolen and Reece wants Taylor to discover who stole it and to retrieve the document before anyone else realizes it's missing.

We have a worthy heroine here. Taylor is smart, resourceful, and driven. But she is the only positive character in this book. If you think all attorneys are scheming snakes then this book will not disabuse you of that opinion. The writing was solid and the plot fairly tight. Although I figured out the "who" about two-thirds of the way through, I did not fully understand the "why" until the author's reveal at the end. And I particularly liked the Alice in Wonderland references throughout the book - that was a nice touch. It's a quick read. give it a try.

[Steve O'neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wait for it….

This book about a bunch of mostly detestable backbiting mostly Anglo-Saxon lawyers at a giant boring Wall Street law firm somehow manages to pull you along due primarily to the one character with any redeeming qualities, a young female paralegal protagonist who’s trying to do the right thing or maybe just trying to survive in this cannibalistic environment. Nothing particularly exciting happens until you’re 80% through the book, but then all hell basically breaks loose and there are several very interesting (and occasionally deadly) plot twists right down to the final scene. Full disclosure, I briefly practiced with a mid-size Wall Street law firm in the 1970s after graduating from the same night law school as the author, before relocating to a smaller, saner city.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mistress of Justice was first published in 1992 by Jeffery Deaver, when the world was beginning to change.

Hubbard, White and Willis is a blue-chip legal firm that only deals with the finest companies on Wall Street. Where many masses of hours are clocked up in defence of their client list. Taylor Lockwood is a paralegal at Hubbard, who is a hard working and to too relax he plays jazz pieces in a nightclub in New York.

Lockwood has been asked to investigate the disappearance of a promissory note that a lawyer is required to present in court. At the same time the firm is looking at a possible takeover or merger and people may not be able to concentrate on what is actually happening. As Lockwood continues to investigate, she stumbles over a number of secrets, and she does not know who to trust at the firm. Little does she know how much this is going to cost her.

A good story.

[Jordana Blasco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It is one of his earlier works, I believe and you can see that he is starting to develop the lay out for his stories that work (very well) for him, where he presents the story, intertwining some other stories/plots and when everything seems to have been solved, there comes the twist and the "unexpected". The lincoln rhyme books follow a similar scheme: he first makes you believe the killer is going to get caught, he/she escapes, anothe plot intertwined in the story, then he really gets caught and then there is the twist, the story is then over. Deaver does it well. And I liked this book although I agree with other readers that say there is an awful lot of people to remember but it kept me entertained which, at the end of the day, is what I want.

[Sharon Gallup · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was the strangest book i have ever read. i wasn't sure if i was reading a love story, a murder mystery, or journal . but the more i read the more i understood what he was trying to say in his writings. this is about a important big law firm and a important form has gone missing and it needs to be found for a up coming court case. The lawyer handling this case calls in to his office one of the best legal aid of the office and asks her help for finding this form no matter what it takes. in the mean time some of the lawyers in this form wants to break away from the main group. and in her investigation she accidentally finds out who they are and why. but i can tell you the ending will not be what you expected.

[Sandy Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taylor Lockwood, daughter of a prominent attorney, is a paraegal in a major Wall Street law firm. Her true love is music and she attacks her job with the same precision one plays the piano. Her efficiency and dedication are what draw Mitchell Reece to request her for a confidential reassignment to help him locate a stolen document to win a major case. He knows it's an inside job. Taylor jumps in with both feet, discovers three possible suspects, and is almost killed - more than once - in the process. A look at back-biting and machinations in a law firm and the people in it during a possible merger is the main backdrop for this mystery.

[Nancy Silk · Rating 5 out of 5]

"All About Deception And Murder"

This thrilling and excellently written novel is about Taylor Lockwood, a paralegal in a well-known Wall Street law firm. At night she likes to play the piano, any where. Attorney Mitchell Reece asks her to help locate a stolen document which, if not found, could cost him the loss of a multi-million dollar case, as well as lose him his job. As she readily dives into the search, she finds secrets ... very damaging secrets. Great story, with a shocking ending. It's a mind bender which will keep you enthralled. Highly recommend.

[Vijaishri Vijayakumar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe because this was written so long back, what should have been some cool characters came off as downright contemptible. There's sexism, there's racism and there's hypocrisy and bigotry in all the wrong ways. Maybe the characters portray realistic views of the average Joe (or even the average lawyer) back in the 90's but it still wasn't a pleasant read for me. No complaints about the plot. Didn't seen the end coming. But the characterization pulled the story down for me personally.

Also, I strongly felt that the author poorly represented a woman's perspective of things.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taylor Lockwood is a paralegal in a large law firm on wall St. She becomes a super sleuth trying to uncover who stole an important document from Mitchell Reese. The story often talked about things about law that I didn't understand and found to be more complicated. She really got involved in solving this problem, more than I would imagine to be necessary. I wondered how she was able to do any work for the amount of sleuthing she did. Not a lot of twists until the end, but I sort of guessed the end any way. A bit hard to believe.

[Kelvin Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mistress of Justice" (1992, 2008) is one of mystery/crime writer Jeffery Deaver’s early works, and is pretty good. A lawyer at a top corporate law firm enlists the aid of a paralegal to discover who stole an important document from the lawyer’s safe. The story moves along quite well, with the paralegal displaying a plethora of skills showcasing her intelligence and resourcefulness. A bevy of interesting supporting characters, several twists, a few red herrings—and even a romance—keeps the interest level high. Tanya Eby’s narration is engaging. Solidly recommended.

[Rodrigo Acuna · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I can not read one more page"

Commercial books do not have to be so stilted and unimaginative the formula can vary a bit, the level of disbelief you have to endure to enjoy this story is torture, the plot is a travesty of implausible and the characters are laughable.
There was no reason to finish it, I was not able to care for any of the characters or the events.
wasted money and precious time.

[Kimwipes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeffrey Deaver knows how to write a thriller. He does his research and tries to give you the thrills you seek. This is the main problem of the book. Some twists and cliffhangers look like they were taken straight from a thriller writing manual. They are too over the top and feel artificial. Even so, it's a well paced and highly readable thriller. i wouldn't buy it especially, but if you come across it, read it.