Present Tense

Best Defence #7

by William H.S. McIntyre

Criminal lawyer Robbie Munro is back home, living with his widowed, ex-policeman dad and his new found daughter, Tina. Life at the practice isn’t going well, neither is the love life he regularly confesses to his junior, Joanna. Then again, on the subject of Joanna, Robbie may be the last to know… When one of his more dubious clients leaves a mysterious box for him to look after, and a helicopter comes down with two fatalities, events take a much more sinister turn, and all of this is complicated by the rape case he has to defend.

Genres: Scotland, Fiction

300 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2016

Reviews

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Present Tense was glorious. Loved it. I'm a fan of legal drama/thrillers and there has been a distinct lack of good ones around lately. Then here is Present Tense..

So Robbie Munro then. Going to be firmly on my list of favourite fictional characters for sure. He's funny, a little bit dark, a gorgeous amount of realistic and so readable I barely put this down. Add in some great plotting, a perfect mix of legal, mystery and family shenanigans and really whats not to love?

The setting is great, the background obviously authentic (unsurprising considering the authors background) I loved the vagaries of law and the ironic dual sense William McIntyre brings to proceedings. He also throws a terrifically intriguing mystery into the mix and manages to make the whole thing a whole load of fun. Which is not to say it doesnt have its serious side - it does. This is dark humour, ironic humour, the kind you need when dealing with the things lawyers deal with.

The crime elements aside I also got totally caught up in Robbie's life and interpersonal relationships. Grace his secretary (brilliant) his Dad (double brilliant) his brother (made me smile every time he appeared) and the rest (we'll talk about Joanna when I've stopped laughing at the last few paragraphs you might have to wait for that) it was all so so enticing. Fatherhood is also a narrative strand here and all parents everywhere will completely empathise with the whole Christmas present drama.

Overall utterly enthralling. Banging as I like to say. More soon please.

Highly Recommended.

[Dlmrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second of a series but the first I've read. I picked it up because I love mysteries or detective fiction set in Great Britain. I wonder, though, why so many modern day such stories always have to spend so much time on how disorganized and very slightly off kilter the protagonists are . Not to mention much more than slightly smart mouthed. That's not a bad thing, really, but sometimes it can be distracting. Robbie's personal life overshadowed the mystery here and downplayed it, at least in my opinion. It became not a whodunnit but a how much can I make off it (even though the money motive was clearly understandable). And the victims were just so much chopped liver. Still, it was smart and only slightly predictable and everyone was likable enough, even the rather stock characters of his Dad, brother and secretary. Again, this is just my opinion and I didn't even realize I had it till I started writing this.

[Marleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a fan of unforgettable legal thrillers, but unfortunately Present Tense was not that unforgettable and not what I expected. Perhaps this series needs to be read in order to better get acquainted with the the main character, Robbie Munro, a thirty something lawyer working for an Scottish agency comparable to a public defenders office. Robbie who's currently living with his dad, also has to cope with being an instant father. Indeed, from a previous relationship, Robbie has a four-year old daughter who suddenly has come to live with him and his father. Admittedly the scenes from their household are often funny and feel very realistic.
As for the plot, one of Robbie's more dubious clients leaves a mysterious box for him to look after. And unfortunately for Robbie, holding on to that package catapults him from one bad event into the other. Note to self: this author's writing style is an acquired taste, and I'm not sure if these books will ever become my cup of tea.

[Miss Dizzy Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality as usual!

[Annette Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the characters.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining as always, love the patter.

[Carol El Hawary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loving these Robbie Munro books.

[Kt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️

Scottish criminal lawyer Robbie Munro is back and neither his professional nor love life is going well. If having to move back in with his dad is not bad enough, an old client of Robbie’s has left him with a box to look after.

This little box should be collecting dust in a corner of his office; but instead it’s attracted not just the Defence Force Police but suspicion that it contains a clue to the murder of a millionaire’s son.

Just what is in the box? Who is the murderer? And can Robbie’s life ever start taking a turn for the better? To find out you’re going to have to read Present Tense, the second Robbie Munro thriller by Scottish criminal lawyer William McIntyre.

I read the first book in this series in June 2022 and loved it. Whether you call it tartan noir or Caledonia crime; Present Tense is the perfect mixture of crime, whodunnit and mystery with a healthy dose of laugh out loud moments and Scottish family dynamics.

The plot and the characters are just as strong as each other and it’s so good to see that one doesn’t carry the other. Instead the both contribute equally to a great whodunnit.

I liked that plenty of the characters from the first book are back (yay!); but that Present Tense is written well enough that you can pick it up as a stand alone read or enjoy it as book two of the series. If only all series writers could do this so seamlessly! Add in a great twist of who killed the millionaire’s son, which I didn’t pick; and you’ve got a must read whodunnit mystery.

A must for lovers of a good whodunnit, mystery, courtroom drama and crime books generally, Present Tense will have you guessing right to the very end.

To play along with my book bingo and to see what else I’m reading, go to #ktbookbingo and @kt_elder on Instagram.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amusing book featuring Robbie Munro, a criminal lawyer based in Linlithgow (not far from Edinburgh). I liked it enough to want to try some of the author's other books.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helicopter crash. Sabotage? Robbie loses the right to be legal aid. Mr. Munro Sr promised Tina a Pyxie Girl doll for Christmas.

[Tilda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous story about Robbie, a solicitor based in Linlithgow, mainly funded by Legal Aid cases. One of his clients leaves a box with him for safekeeping and so the problems begin. At least that particular problem. The ongoing problem, about his lack of written evidence of meetings with his clients, results in him loosing his Legal aid work and he has to rely on his assistant to keep the work coming in and the business afloat. Set in Scotland with lots of wry humour.

[Sheena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received a free preview copy. This is the seventh book in the Best Defence series but is fine as a stand-alone with some references to past stories. It was witty and well written, good plot, good characters and made me laugh out loud at times. Crimes and criminals seen from the point of view of a just making ends meet disorganised lawyer who relies on legal aid clients and gets himself into scrapes in the quest for money. Pretty hapless in his personal life too but very likable.