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Barbara Holloway #3
Malice Prepense
Forget about Grisham, Turow and all those other scribbling ex-lawyers. The best writer of legal mysteries working today is Kate Wilhelm of Eugene, Oregon. Her first two books about Barbara Holloway -- The Best Defense and Death Qualified -- were sleeper successes. Holloway is a marvelously dense and thorny character, and her father and legal colleague is equally interesting. "He resolutely denied himself awareness of the time clock ticking away, and while denying it, he tried to remember if she was thirty-nine or forty," Wilhem writes of father Frank thinking about his daughter. "In his head, she was sometimes a very young girl, and then a woman older and wiser than he was; he no longer knew which image was more accurate. He suspected she was both, and then a few others, too."
412 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
7 people are currently reading
306 people want to read
About the author
Kate Wilhelm
275 books444 followersKate Wilhelm’s first short story, “The Pint-Sized Genie” was published in Fantastic Stories in 1956. Her first novel, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, a mystery, was published in 1963. Over the span of her career, her writing has crossed over the genres of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism, psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. She returned to writing mysteries in 1990 with the acclaimed Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl Mysteries and the Barbara Holloway series of legal thrillers.
Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit, Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan.
Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops.
Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction.
Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.
Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit, Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan.
Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops.
Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction.
Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
May 10, 2017
Barbara Holloway and her father, Frank, were finding it a challenge to solve the case because the clues were, at first, like jig saw pieces that didn’t fit but with Bailey, the Holloway’s P.I., on the case and the Holloway’s excellent ability to solve puzzles they were able to piece the clues together. Consequently, Barbara found piecing the puzzle together easier then arguing the case before a hostile and incompetent judge and Grace Heflin, a cunning prosecutor. Malice Prepence was a great read! Anna Fields storytelling holds readers captive.
July 20, 2017
I didn't like this book as much as the others in the series. It was still good just not up to snuff like the previous. It drags in many parts and is fast paced in others and the roller coaster effect was beginning to get on my nerves by the end. The plot and actions are over exaggerated and so far out there they don't ring true half the time. The prejudices against people with mental illnesses did not sit well with me. Granted this was written at a time when there was still a ton to learn and for the public to know/learn about mental illness and the author does make an attempt at enlightening and educating us it falls flat. It looks like the author just skimmed information about mental illness and filled in the blanks and said we shouldn't judge people till we know the whole situation or should try putting ourselves in their shoes. It pissed me off because the characters are so misrepresented it's annoying and offensive.
The relationships in this book also grate on my nerves and don't ring true. Frank, Barbara's father is too perfect. He waits on her hand and foot then turns around and lectures her...or tries to as she pays no heed of him in this mode. As for Barbara her relationship to men in this book and in both previous books is that of insta-love/lust. In every book she see's a man (later connected with the case) and falls in love instantly. And they for some reason or another fall instantly in love with her. They "fight" their attraction for a few pages or a chapter and are immediately falling into bed together. Although Barbara is almost 40 she never seems to use contraception and hasn't ended up pregnant. Also all of the men she loves are either broken or become broken by the end of the story. In this book she has two men she insta-loves while still stringing along the guy from the last book. She pairs up the guy from the last book with her new legal aid and lets the least broken guy go in favor for the one that seems least likely for her.
As for the topic of mental illness in the characters involved they keep repeating that the accused is mentally retarded when he isn't. He is stuck at the mental age of 8 but he functions as a normal well adjusted 8 year old, he had reason, logic, empathy and understands action and consequences. As for the inst-love of Barbara's life he was diagnosed as schizophrenic when that none of the many doctors he sees catch since none of them ask him about his history (no doctor but your first starts from scratch so very unrealistic) or talk to each other (very true in today's world but not in the past). Last Barbara herself is most likely in need of some mental help and maybe some drugs. Her behavior in all the books leads one to think she has an eating disorder (she either doesn't eat at all or way over eats in one sitting, the not eating is the predominant). She may also be bipolar from her behavior with her clients, her father and her lovers.
The relationships in this book also grate on my nerves and don't ring true. Frank, Barbara's father is too perfect. He waits on her hand and foot then turns around and lectures her...or tries to as she pays no heed of him in this mode. As for Barbara her relationship to men in this book and in both previous books is that of insta-love/lust. In every book she see's a man (later connected with the case) and falls in love instantly. And they for some reason or another fall instantly in love with her. They "fight" their attraction for a few pages or a chapter and are immediately falling into bed together. Although Barbara is almost 40 she never seems to use contraception and hasn't ended up pregnant. Also all of the men she loves are either broken or become broken by the end of the story. In this book she has two men she insta-loves while still stringing along the guy from the last book. She pairs up the guy from the last book with her new legal aid and lets the least broken guy go in favor for the one that seems least likely for her.
As for the topic of mental illness in the characters involved they keep repeating that the accused is mentally retarded when he isn't. He is stuck at the mental age of 8 but he functions as a normal well adjusted 8 year old, he had reason, logic, empathy and understands action and consequences. As for the inst-love of Barbara's life he was diagnosed as schizophrenic when that none of the many doctors he sees catch since none of them ask him about his history (no doctor but your first starts from scratch so very unrealistic) or talk to each other (very true in today's world but not in the past). Last Barbara herself is most likely in need of some mental help and maybe some drugs. Her behavior in all the books leads one to think she has an eating disorder (she either doesn't eat at all or way over eats in one sitting, the not eating is the predominant). She may also be bipolar from her behavior with her clients, her father and her lovers.
March 24, 2016
This is my second Kate Wilhelm mystery. It strikes me that there is a pattern with female lawyer detective/detective heroines in mystery novels that they live with or near nurturing fathers/father figures, have dead mothers, and although heterosexual, are unable to commit to one love-interest man (for one reason or another). This allows the author to work in dating and/or sex scenes to liven up the story and humanize the heroine. There's Nancy Drew of course, then Kinsey Milhone and now Barbara Holloway. Hmmm.
Wilhelm keeps the plot moving with many twists and turns, brings in topical concerns such as parenting a special needs child and environmental advocacy, and altogether creates a fairly believable though contrived murder mystery moving along to resolution. I find the writing less witty and observant and the dialog less engaging than Sue Grafton, but she is up there overall. How can you not like a lawyer who gives her father kittens for Christmas and names them Thing One and Thing Two?
Wilhelm keeps the plot moving with many twists and turns, brings in topical concerns such as parenting a special needs child and environmental advocacy, and altogether creates a fairly believable though contrived murder mystery moving along to resolution. I find the writing less witty and observant and the dialog less engaging than Sue Grafton, but she is up there overall. How can you not like a lawyer who gives her father kittens for Christmas and names them Thing One and Thing Two?
November 30, 2008
FOR THE DEFENSE - NR
Wilhelm, Kate - 3rd Barbara Halloway
Teddy Wendover is a hulking twenty-eight-year-old with the mind of a child. An accident at eight left him severely retarded. But did it turn him into a cold-blooded killer?
Someone has bludgeoned Oregon congressman Harry Knecht to death. Knecht was the man who organized the ill-fated field trip that led to Teddy's injury.
Two more murders convince defense attorney Barbara Holloway that there's a broader circle of guilt. Before staging a dramatic courtroom performance, she must sift through dead ends, hearsay, and veiled clues--only to discover that truth is more dangerous than speculation
Except for the courtroom scenes, the dialogue was stilted, the hints to the past annoying and the writing inconsistent.
Wilhelm, Kate - 3rd Barbara Halloway
Teddy Wendover is a hulking twenty-eight-year-old with the mind of a child. An accident at eight left him severely retarded. But did it turn him into a cold-blooded killer?
Someone has bludgeoned Oregon congressman Harry Knecht to death. Knecht was the man who organized the ill-fated field trip that led to Teddy's injury.
Two more murders convince defense attorney Barbara Holloway that there's a broader circle of guilt. Before staging a dramatic courtroom performance, she must sift through dead ends, hearsay, and veiled clues--only to discover that truth is more dangerous than speculation
Except for the courtroom scenes, the dialogue was stilted, the hints to the past annoying and the writing inconsistent.
June 21, 2015
Kate Wilhelm certainly delights in tangled webs and notable characters. She knows her Oregon region and descriptively takes the reader into that world. I thoroughly enjoy lawyer stories and this one brings us into the courtroom (which truly is less likely to happen than settling out of court in real life). Barbara Holloway is a complex character and this book again demonstrates that pervading trait.
February 8, 2020
5++++ stars. Wow what story and so many issues highlighted both in the mental health area, opinionated professionals...............
May 6, 2021
I took most of the Barbara Holloway series away on a holiday a few months ago and they were marvellous - just engaging enough, with decent politics and writing. (They're not Wilhelm's best books - her Constance and Charlie mysteries are miles better - but sometimes the second-tier books of a favourite writer are just what you need.) Anyway, it turned out we didn't have this book, and it wasn't available on Kindle, so we ended up buying a second-hand copy, and sadly it wasn't very good. The premise - that someone who suffered a traumatic brain injury at the age of fifteen would "regress" to believing that they were an eight-year-old boy and remain at that stage of development for the rest of his life, plus also never go through puberty for some reason - just seemed like a really literal reading of the old "he has a mental age of eight" thing which I think was never a very good way of understanding intellectual disability/ brain injury in the first place? So that bothered me all the way through the book and meant I couldn't really get into it. It would have been a fun enough read otherwise, with lots of nice description/detail about rooms and food and clothes and kittens, and a decent romance developing between Barbara and a geologist, and the usual enjoyable combination of investigation and courtroom drama. But for me the pace/suspense never really picked up - to the point where, when I was ten pages from the end or so, and Barbara was suddenly put into a life-threatening situation when the murderer showed up at her house with a hostage and a gun and all like that... I told my gf it was fine to head out for our Sunday drive now, I didn't need to finish my book first.
But the Charlie & Constance books really are fantastic. Read those instead.
But the Charlie & Constance books really are fantastic. Read those instead.
March 20, 2022
In each book in this series, author Kate Wilhelm presents her character Attorney Barbara Holloway with a client and a crime that's like a puzzle with 100,000 pieces, none of which seem to fit together. However, Barbara is brilliant, clever and persistent, and she always manages to gather up all the puzzle pieces and get her client out of trouble. There are clues for the watchful reader, but honestly it usually takes me to the end of the book to have Barbara solve the crime. I read the Barbara Holloway books a number of years ago and am on my second read as the books are that good. This book focuses on three murders that someone has endeavored to pin on Teddy Wendover, a young man with the mind of an 8-year-old due to a serious childhood accident. When the plot to frame Teddy fails, his father Ted comes into focus for one of the crimes, and Ted is Barbara's client. This is a wonderful, intricate story.
June 21, 2018
**Spoiler alert- Don't read this if you don't like spoilers. This is not a review. I write these summaries just to keep track of what I have read. ***
Not as bad as some reviews I read. Barbara Holloway is again involved in a couple wounded men's lives- one wrongly accused of murder (a brain damaged man who is, in all senses except how he looks- an 8 year old), the other is a man who helps out in the investigation who was severely injured in a mining accident. Half of the book is pre-trial, the rest is the trial.
The trial portion is okay- but it's all court room details. The actual killer is found at the end, as the jury is out making its verdict. Bobbie puts together who did it, through process of elimination and some clues of motive and access. Then the killer goes a bit crazy and grabs his loving wife (out of the blue??) and comes after our heroine, drops his wife, takes Bobbie out in the car, she crashes it, escapes and he shoots himself. His brother and father who helped and or killed one or two of the three victims. Meanwhile it was a hung jury and the wrongly accused father goes free. Sort of a weird ending- the purpose of the book seemed to be the trial, and the information on mental health/developmental disabilities explored due to some characters...
Not as bad as some reviews I read. Barbara Holloway is again involved in a couple wounded men's lives- one wrongly accused of murder (a brain damaged man who is, in all senses except how he looks- an 8 year old), the other is a man who helps out in the investigation who was severely injured in a mining accident. Half of the book is pre-trial, the rest is the trial.
The trial portion is okay- but it's all court room details. The actual killer is found at the end, as the jury is out making its verdict. Bobbie puts together who did it, through process of elimination and some clues of motive and access. Then the killer goes a bit crazy and grabs his loving wife (out of the blue??) and comes after our heroine, drops his wife, takes Bobbie out in the car, she crashes it, escapes and he shoots himself. His brother and father who helped and or killed one or two of the three victims. Meanwhile it was a hung jury and the wrongly accused father goes free. Sort of a weird ending- the purpose of the book seemed to be the trial, and the information on mental health/developmental disabilities explored due to some characters...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2019
I wish that reality were not so confusing and inscrutable, but this book definitely reflected those aspects of reality! The innocence of major characters was indisputable from the start, but what we as readers of the novel as opposed to the members of the jury are exposed to is indisputably different, and the motions of the author and the author's characters are much more easily absorbed by the reader than the jury. The pins and needles to which we are subjected really make the book.
And it's very easy to say "what a ridiculous system we have!", based solely on a single fictional story which easily can point out deficiencies without pointing out the need for them! Good book!
And it's very easy to say "what a ridiculous system we have!", based solely on a single fictional story which easily can point out deficiencies without pointing out the need for them! Good book!
November 25, 2016
This was not quite as attention-grabbing as the previous book, but that is not surprising. Few authors can manage that "grabs you and doesn't let you go" level each time. Wilhelm's courtroom scenes are marvelous. The relationship between Barbara and her father continues to grow and develop in realistic and loving ways. I am very fond of many of the characters, but I love Barbara. I'm looking forward to what develops next. Recommended.
August 8, 2019
Another well done criminal court case. This one had the possibility of the lawyer actually losing this case. As true to form, this author created another complicated story with many characters to follow and bits and pieces to keep track. I usually make guesses as I go, to come up with who the murderer might be. In this story I was totally taken by surprise.
April 2, 2021
This book was a murder-mystery where the focus was more on the court proceedings/trial of the suspected killer than on who committed the crime. I felt like I was part of the story, right in the court room with all the characters. A great read with an overall positive outcome, although a somewhat unexpected ending.
May 20, 2021
I didn’t know anything about mining before reading this multiple murders that include a congressman to a graduate student working on her dissertation on gold mining in Oregon. This unusual trial centered novel introduces retardation and insanity under the law. The case discusses doctors giving out to many hard drug to pain patients and then declaring him insane on his records.
October 3, 2021
I listened to this via audio while running errands, and I have to admit I lost a lot of the plot because I couldn't keep it all straight while only half listening. It's not the writer's fault, but I will say, I wasn't really compelled to pay more attention either. It was harsh on the mentally disabled, that's for sure.
June 26, 2022
SO this is the third in the series with the main character Barbara Holloway. I liked the first two enough to follow up on the third. This one seems to have really his its stride. The voices ring true, the plots are interesting, the heroine flawed and wonderful. No, not great art, but a fun legal page turner.
August 5, 2019
To cover up a failing development scheme, the bad guy in this one takes advantage of people's prejudice against those who have mental disabilities, and initially frames the disabled guy, then his father.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2021
great character, great courtroom drama, and thorny mysteries. Just what I need in month 13 of pandemic. Barbara Holloway is a great protagonist. If you are an audible user, jsut know that the reader is fanstastic too
August 23, 2021
I do love Wilhelm's writing. The headspace she inhabits is so intriguing. I love the blend of the soft sciences and the hard sciences all hung on a frame of murder, a series of very clever and twisted murders. Very satisfying. More satisfying than some of her endings.
September 6, 2017
I would have given the last half 4 stars, but the first half deserved only 2.
December 12, 2017
I'm always so excited to find a new author I really enjoy. Kate Wilhelm gives John Grisham a run for his money and then some!
March 14, 2019
I like her books, but the protagonist has the morals of an alley cat. She has sex sometimes the first time she meets a man. I don’t like that. It makes it hard to like her.
May 23, 2019
Great series as audio books!
October 13, 2020
Just finished reading the third Barbara Holloway book at my Mom's suggestion. I like the characters and Kate Wilhelm's story weaving.
January 29, 2021
I didn't like this story very much. Again, an unlikely guilty person as a client and another contrived story. Sigh...
June 21, 2021
A court setting is not my favorite read but it kept me wanting to know what happened.
October 18, 2021
I really do like this series. I enjoy the courtroom drama and the protagonist - but honestly the best aspect is that it is set in familiar Oregon locations.
December 15, 2021
OK; slower than usual
May 15, 2022
Still reading this series.
August 2, 2023
Just love these legal thrillers!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews