Sullivan's Justice

Carolyn Sullivan #2

by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

"New York Times" bestselling author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg delivers Sullivan's Justice--and plunges probation officer Carolyn Sullivan into a case that will challenge everything she holds dear while exposing the deadliest of secrets. . ..
Her work for the Ventura County Probation Department brings Carolyn Sullivan face-to-face with the most depraved criminals, and serial killer Raphael Moreno is at the top of the list. But things get even darker when a single phone call propels her into a nightmare.
Carolyn's brother, Neil, has discovered the body of his girlfriend floating in his swimming pool--and he's soon the prime suspect in her murder. Neil has an alibi: he was in bed with celebrity heiress Melody Asher. But when Melody refuses to back up Neil's story and the evidence against him mounts, the brother Carolyn thought she knew suddenly seems like a complete stranger.
The key to everything seems to be Moreno, but getting inside his head is a dangerous game. Now Carolyn must find the courage to make the ultimate decision--whether to risk the lives of innocent people or save herself and those she loves most. . .

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

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

With a BA in English and 5 years as a photographic model behind her, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg studied criminology. She served in the Dallas Police Department, New Mexico State Police, Ventura Police Department and as an Investigative Probation Officer in Court Services for the Country of Ventura where she handled major crimes. She lived in California.

Reviews

[Gwenyth Robicheaux · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. It was full of cliches, the characters were neither realistic nor likable, and the author isn't a very good writer, in my opinion. She seems to be trying to punch up her vocabulary by using her thesaurus, but she often uses words that are close, but ultimately wrong. I kept having to look up words because I was pretty sure I knew what they meant, but her usage had me second guessing myself. Turns out I was right. It reminds me of that Mark Twain quote, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was up and down.. To me the story was to repetitive in parts, but towards the end GREAT!!!!

[Carl Alves · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this novel, Carolyn Sullivan, a probation officer and law student, has to help her brother Neil get out of trouble. An artsy type, Neil calls Carolyn to tell her that his girlfriend was found dead in a pool. After she finds out a family secret, she begins to have doubts about Neil's innocence. All the same, she is determined to help her brother.


This was a solid if unspectacular novel. The writing was competent and professional. There were no major plot holes in the novel. At the same time, there was nothing especially Earth shattering about it either. It was a fairly pedestrian thriller with nothing to distinguish it from many of the other thrillers that I have read recently. Although entertaining, this wasn't a deep read.


Carl Alves - author of Blood Street

[Mimi Barbour · Rating 4 out of 5]

She's a wonderful author and always tells a good story.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was boring and stupid. I assume her writing had improved since 2005.

[Clem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg is not an author that is necessarily familiar to the masses. I came across a novel by her about 15 years ago called “Trial By Fire” and really enjoyed it. A decade and a half later, I picked up my second book by her, this one, and was a bit underwhelmed.

This is one of those “crime” novels. Our hero is Carolyn Sullivan who is a probation officer somewhere in California. All of these crime novels tend to be quite similar. They seem to always revolve around those in the law enforcement community trying to make the world a safer place. They’re all overworked, underpaid, drink a lot of bad coffee, and don’t seem to have any time for a home life - so everyone is divorced or single. Sullivan isn’t any different, but she’s committed, she’s driven, she’s very good at what she does, and she’s trying her best to be a good single mother of two teenagers.

The actual plot, or storyline here is pretty satisfactory, and I must say that Rosenberg did keep me turning pages to find out what happened next. My problem with this book was the overall sleaze factor. I’ve never read a book that contained so much sex, drugs, warped people, sex, adults abused as children, suicides, and more sex. It became pretty nauseating after awhile. This book reminded me of a trashy pay-cable show that only comes on late at night that is 60 minutes long that contained 20 minutes of plot and 40 minutes of sex.

Let’s just take one (of many) of our characters in this story as a case study. Melody Asher is a voluptuous blonde who’s romantically (well, “sexually” would be a better word) involved with Carolyn Sullivan’s brother. I wouldn’t exactly call them a “couple”, but they do have a lot of.....well....sex. Melody has problems. Big problems. It turns out that she’s very smart, yet plays the “dumb blonde” so that men will do anything for her. How smart? Apparently she has an advance degree in mathematics or something. Yet based on her actions and dialogue, she doesn’t even seem capable to serve an order of wings at Hooters. You see, not only does she videotape all of her sexual encounters at her house and then “get off” on watching them later, but she somehow manages to break into the house of every lover she’s ever had (and there are many), and install an intricate video system so she can watch her lovers have sex with “others”. How anyone can actually pull something off like this is beyond me. Of course, she can then use these tapes as blackmail etc. etc. Like every (and I do mean “every”) other character in the book, Melody has personal issues, so we’re supposed to somehow feel sorry for this monster, and the book moves too quickly between having us despise her and then supposed to “root” for her. I still couldn’t figure out at the end of this story what I was supposed to feel.

Did I mention there was a lot of sex in this book? Well, it seems the author has to somehow insert irrelevant details about the character’s perversions and fetishes every chance she can, even though they don’t have the slightest relevance to the story. Do we really need to know that one of Sullivan’s partners, an older divorced man, needs to watch pornography every now and then to “make sure everything is still working”? Or, is it really necessary to tell the story about when Sullivan was an adolescent, she “blossomed over night” but her mother was too busy to notice and buy her a bra so the young girl had to manufacture one herself out of a garter belt?? So, yes, this book is chocked full of sleazy instances such as these.

I must also say that I was dissatisfied with the conclusion of the book. The ending seemed to be a bit far fetched, and Rosenberg tries to tie up too many loose ends too quickly without giving the conclusions much thought. It’s almost as if she was under a tight deadline to finish the book, so she haphazardly throws in a few sentences that are supposed to “wrap up” major details of the story. In addition, there are too many unanswered questions at the end as well in terms of character motivation and separating truth from innuendo. Sometimes, a good story will do this to you to get you to think or to motivate discussion. In this case, the story was so lame that it just left you frustrated.

I believe Rosenberg has written a few other “Sullivan” books, yet I doubt I’ll be reading them anytime soon. I would recommend “Trial By Fire” by this author, however. I would hope the majority of her work is more reminiscent of that one as opposed to this one.

[Peggy Van Wunnik · Rating 1 out of 5]

I grabbed this one off the library shelf, my first Rosenberg to read, but I gave up at page 15. Whatever happened to editing? This book desperately needed it! An example: a paragraph begins "When she retrieved her mail from the box at the curb, several items fell to the ground. The market was in a slump. That's the way it was in the stock market..." What? What the heck is the connection between pieces of mail falling out of the box and the stock market being in a slump?

Another paragraph: "The money they'd saved had gone into improvements, like her luxuriously appointed cherry closet and the two-story library where the spent most afternoons, reading and sipping tea with Freddy curled up at her feet. Even her ulcer had finally healed." What possible reason could there be for mentioning her ulcer in the same paragraph as bragging about her gorgeous home?

There are too many good authors out there for me to waste any more of my time reading this junk.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carol.yn Sullivan is a probation officer who has a rare talent for getting criminals to talk for her. This time it is Raphael Moreno a man charged with several local murders. I found this book all over the place with events and new characters popping in making the story confusing in trying to figure out who was who. The story is fast moving and very interesting all the same.

[Gr8Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Began reading NTR well over 30 years ago.......it's been quite some time since I read her and not sure why......Really enjoyed Sullivan's justice - the way it all came together in the end....she hasn'tlost her touch.

[Jerry King · Rating 1 out of 5]

2006

[Linda]

for May 20

[Gpkarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Lots of intrigue. Carolyn gets the toughest case but manages.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book as much as her first Carolyn Sulliuvan book.

[Effie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Just...wow. This was a free Kindle read, and I didn't read it as much as skim. It is so poorly written that I kept marveling that it was ever published. The main character is a probation officer/law student/single mother dynamo, the kind of probation officer who isn't afraid to lock herself in a room with a violent killer to get the truth. Characters repeatedly comment on how she's the one to get the job done and no one else can do it.

The other characters have little personality and in the middle of a crucial scene with dialogue, the book will digress into pages and pages of backstory that has little to do with the plot. The brother's girlfriend is particularly ridiculous, with pages of endless flashbacks, and you never know whether she was telling the truth or not. There is the self-involved mother, the druggie brother, and the no-good boyfriend, along with the no-good ex-boyfriend. The ending was more laughable than a Hollywood summer feature, and throughout the book I honestly was rooting more for the villain than the main character, plutonium bomb and all.

Why did I keep reading? To see if it could truly get any worse (it did).

[Lani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some discrepancies. What is written in the begining of the book doesn't make sense with the ending when it comes to one of the killers. This killer is believed to be a towering, strong, thin male in a leather jacket and motorcycle helmet. He speaks to the victim in his real and undisguised voice (as noted by the author). The victim is convinced he wants to rape her and she throws under garments at him thinking it might turn him on so he will just rape her instead of killing her. The references of "him", "he" and "his" are described of the assailant throughout the attack. But at the end it turns out to be a middle-aged married wife and mother with MS. Earlier in the story, this killer meets the "boss" on vacation, it is never noted that she has a masculine voice. Why did no one else catch this in editing?

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the second installment of the Carolyn Sullivan legal thriller series by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, Sullivan's Justice, Carolyn Sullivan returned in another harrowing tale. This time, when her brother Neil was arrested for his dead girlfriend's body floating in the river, he became the prime suspect. For Ventura County probation officer Carolyn Sullivan, she would help her brother out by clearing his name. Lately, evidence proved it was liked to serial killer Raphael Moreno, one of the ruthless criminals she ever faced. Now it would be tough for her to get inside his head and make the toughest decision she had to make on who to save...

[VLynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book had some great parts. Lots of good characters, twists and turns that kept my interests. I like the fact this book was able to stand alone even though it's book #2 in a series. I did not feel like I was missing too much from not reading #1. Other than a bit of history of Brad and Carolyn. I do feel like it there were too many subplots to the story. I feel the story of Carolyn's father's death could have been a book of its own. (Now won't I be embarrassed if I found it is! :) ) I wanted to feel more from that situation. Sullivan's Justice was a good book and now I am moving on to Book #3.

[Jean Cogdell · Rating 3 out of 5]

After having waded through a very long saga previously I was ready for some light reading. Sullivan's Justice provided that. Carolyn Sullivan is a Ventura County, California, probation officer who works with hardened criminals and uses her knowledge of psychology to get them to open up to her. There are lot of twists and turns in this thriller and heavy body count. Carolyn's brother Neil becomes one of the murder suspects and family secrets are revealed. A good legal thriller. Not great but good. I have a second one written by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg so I will see how the next one goes.

[Marcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Carolyn Sullivan, a probation officer, single mom and wonder woman is the sister of a man suspected in a double homicide. She's also the only officer who can deal with an evil prisoner.Numerous sub-plots intertwine, though not very effectively. It was a chore to finish this one, poorly written as it was with characters about whom I cared nothing.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this free download to my Kindle. It was enjoyable, although sometimes I had a hard time keeping track of the characters. The tension the probation officer felt during her interviews with the "bad guy" was palpable. With so much riding on that, but with so many other people, sometimes I was not sure of where it was going (or even of where I was).

[Kathi Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a pretty good who-done-it. Towards the beginning there are some unnecessarily explicit sex scenes, which if she really needed that element, could have been handled differently without very much creativity needed. I really don't think they are that essential to the story, and consequently may not read anymore of her books because I don't need to have that as part of the stuff I read.

[Scott Parsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had been quite a while since I had read a book by Nancy Rosenberg. Unlike some reviewers I found Sullivan's Justice an enthralling read. The plot is complex with a lot of characters and subplots but I couldn't put it down. Burned the midnight oil to finish it. very satisfied when I finished it.

Read it. You will enjoy it.

[Pmcdnld2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carolyn Sullivan is a probation officer in California. Her brother is a suspect in the death of his girl friend; and some similar murders. Nothing and no one is what they seem. Convoluted but interesting mystery

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was totally wrong with my guess of the "bad guy." This free Kindle download was, at times, complicated with all the characters. The main characters had a lot of dynfunctionality, most of it started when they were children. Other the few "flaws," I did enjoy it.

[Gail Stewart rumsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made a mistake and listened to the abridged edition of the audio book. I do not like abridged editions in general and this was no different. The effect was choppy and some story lines seemed to disappear or just crop up for no reason. My impression is that this is a good book.

[Olga DiLenge]

So far, it's ok

[Hayseed · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good read, not a page turner, but interesting twists and turns.

[Shiela]

Just another run of the mill murder mystery.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this murder mystery and will read the next of the author's book. A little light on character development but entertaining.

[Kathy]

I really liked this book. Good plot.. Maybe a little unbelievable at the end but it was still good writing. Enjoyed it thoroughly... Will read more of this author eventually