Suspicion of Guilt

Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana #2

by Barbara Parker

When a Palm Beach widow dies, the dispute over her will turns deadly in this “breathlessly paced legal thriller” from a New York Times–bestselling author (Publishers Weekly).

When wealthy Palm Beach dowager Althea Tillett dies under suspicious circumstances, it sparks a battle between those in line for an inheritance—including Gail Connor’s old law school classmate and former lover Patrick Norris. He thinks someone has tampered with his aunt’s will—preventing him from receiving millions he hoped to use for an urban renewal project.
 
Although discouraged from getting involved by her own law firm and her lover, Cuban-American attorney Anthony Quintana, Gail agrees to look into Althea’s rapacious relatives. But she soon finds herself in the middle of a family feud that’s about much more than money. It’s about secrets, lies, forgery . . . and murder.
 
Written by a former prosecutor, this “provocative, breathless” national bestseller “will surprise you” (The Plain Dealer).

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

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Barbara Parker was an American mystery writer. She wrote 12 novels, the first of which, Suspicion of Innocence, was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first mystery novel by an American author. Parker was on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America and was the chair of its membership committee for two years.

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[✨ Gramy ✨]

This is the second in a series starring Connors, an attorney, still aspiring for placement as a partner after eight years. She was advised the promotion was held back due to her personal problems in the past (her sister's murder and her emotional divorce after 12 years of marriage). In this book she s faced with another brutal murder. It starts out slow. She demonstrates strength and insight developing the characters. When money is involved the greedy family fights over the money left behind. There were multiple suspects and a twist that will surprize the readers at the end.

[Louise]

I enjoyed this book…I will say the heroine of this book Gail…was acting pretty crazy. No one except someone under extreme duress would act like she did. The book was about 125 pages too long. Could have used a good edit. The ending was a shock.

[Barbara Adams]

didn't like

[Mary]

Enjoyed the relationship between Gail and Anthony. Great storyline that is easily believable. Need to read the first book to get a clearer understanding of Gail's relationship with Anthony as well as that of her ex-husband. Plot keeps you going with twists.

[Jann]

Absolutely fantastic! The book caught my interest from the first pages and kept it all through to the end. I never once suspected who was responsible for the murders which kept happening and was stunned when it was revealed. Being set in Miami was another plus for me and though the action took place in areas further away from where I had lived for a year, the street and community names were all familiar to me, which lent some extra flavour. I shall have to look out for some of Barbara Parker's other titles in hope that they are also as exciting. I may have to catch up on some the sleep I lost first though, because I found that once I got into the book I rarely even checked the time.

[Kal]

Sequels are always a hit or a miss. You either manage to recapture the interest that caught the reader with the first one, or you miss the mark completely.

Suspicion of Guilt did a good job of keeping you interested in the characters from the first book. I blew through the first hundred pages in a day. But, where the first one grabbed your interest from the very first page and kept you there, this second book struggled to maintain it's momentum. I found myself not really getting anywhere after the first hundred pages, so I didn't have a very hard time returning to it after over a week of not reading it. Sure, that made picking it back up easy, but what does that say about the narrative?

On the other hand, this one did have my guessing until the very end, which the first one failed to do. I was genuinely surprised when the perpetrator was revealed, where as with the first book I knew who had done it over a hundred pages before the end.

In conclusion, this book wasn't going to be winning any awards. And it didn't. But, it still managed to tell a decent story. And really, what more can you ask for?

[John]

This is the 1st book that I have read by this author. The story shows how Gail was able to piece together all the puzzle pieces in relation to the murder and estate issue that arose. Gail is asked by Patrick a friend from Law School to pursue the forging of his Aunt's will. Before she could take this on, she needed approval by her law firm to proceed.

As she began to look into this case, a large amount of other issues indirectly related to the will case arose. It was only after she was able to figure out how they were pertinent, that she was able to bring things to conclusion.

The ending where the individual responsible will reveal who killed the Aunt. It is one that you wouldn't expect. I highly recommend this book.

[Anashi Sensei]

I find the book to be well written with a lot of very accurate descriptions of the inner workings of a big law firm. The social, political, economic and legal aspects of the story are well knitted together giving, perhaps a little cynical but well-rounded, commentary of the human society as we know it. The story is interesting and captivating from beginning to end although I feel like the ending was a little bit rushed and that more "clues" so to speak could have been left for the readers throughout the book to help piece it all together. Maybe I'm just salty though because I didn't figure out who the killer was before the main character did.

[Lori Robinett]

I enjoyed the story. It moved along at a nice pace. I found myself frustrated with Gail, though. In all honesty, I might've been perfectly happy with her when the story was written, but in 2021, I want my female characters to be smart and savvy and capable of kicking a$$ on their own without a man.

[Donna Foston]

I didn’t read the first book, but I don’t really think you need to. Pace was a little slow and definitely needed a proofreader. Pretty good story, but I knew who the bad guy was fairly early on. Wouldn’t be interested in any more of this series.

[Susan Moses]

I bought this book used to give to my mom, who goes through books like crazy. It was written in the early '90s and is very dated. And how many attorneys do you know that personally go visit potential murder suspects by themselves? Entertaining yet very formulaic.

[Pat]

Great series to read by the pool. Easy fast read, but enjoyable

[Susan Thomas]

Twisty turns; great finish

[Andrea Robinson]

I look forward to more of this series.

[Pam Sexton]

Too many characters, a bit hard to follow and some foul
Language, but did keep
Me hooked til end trying to figure out who dunnit. Didn’t realize it was no. 2 of a series but didn’t seem to matter

[Lucian]

I enjoyed it. Excellent character development, story line & a surprise ending. Good summer read.

[Phyllis]

A good mystery that kept me guessing until the end. This is the second book in the series and I want to read the next one.

[Richard Guerrero]

Like the last one, I enjoyed the characters but in this case didn’t really care for the story. It was good but overall I feel it was a little too much.

[Robert Hoffman]

Wow

To be brief, I usually have an idea where the plot is heading but no with this book. Very good read.

[Hillary]

This is the sequel to Suspicion of Innocence and I really enjoyed it. I will say that I liked Suspicion of Innocence a little more than this book. I loved getting to see more of Gail and Anthony and their relationship as well as the relationship between Gail and her daughter, Karen. I think Gail is such an awesome main character because she is very persistent and stubborn, which is a good thing but can sometimes be a bad thing. The mystery in this book wasn't as good as the first book, in my opinion, but I liked getting to see Gail's investigation. Overall, I think this is a solid sequel and I can't wait to reread the next book in the series!

[Lori]

Just an okay book. Moved slow. There was a nice twist.

Plot: A lawyer takes on a case that is not a certain win. She uncovers different evidence that points to different people and in the end you will be surprised who did it.

[Linda]

A little better than the first book of this series, and I liked the heroine just a little bit more. The author did not write a chapter near the end describing some of the most adventurous time in the book, just talked about it as having already happened. Weird.

[Brena Chan]

I really enjoyed this book up until the end when the murderer was revealed. Usually this is the part I enjoy most, but with this book, even though it was a surprise, it left me feeling incredibly dissatisfied. I don't think the character building contributed positively to the final "Aha!"

[Jackie]

The story moved a bit slow however the twists kept it interesting. It was well written so I'm going to try another of her books (another yard sale fine fiftey cents!

[Missy]

I found I really enjoy Barbara Parker and her character Gail Conner.

[Annelie Rozeboom]

Very good read.

[Stephanie]

Easy, enjoyable read with interesting characters and a fast moving plot.

[Ht]

it was an ok book. I will more books by her only if im out of books. got piles and totes full of books, so im off her for a long time.

[Jenene]

Excellent mystery!

[Jackie Simons]

Read 1/98