Plot
When teenager Rachel Smithson is charged with murdering her newborn baby in a hotel room, Ashley is appointed to represent her. Determined to prove her client innocent, Ashley delves into the secret life and relationships of the quiet teen. And turns up more questions than answers.
Meanwhile, Ashley’s longtime friend and sometimes rival, police officer Katie Mickey, investigates the alleged murder with the aim of ensuring Rachel’s conviction. Despite working against each other, the two women begin to share the same awful suspicions, and the tragic case takes an even darker turn when rumors surface that the father of Rachel’s baby is an adult in her life.
Then Ashley falls victim to a personal attack, and she and Mickey find themselves racing to unmask a different, far more dangerous offender.
My Analysis
This is the second in the series. It’s a year after the first book. Ashley and Katie are friends, but there’s tension between them at times. A lot of tension between Ashley and boyfriend Tom, whom we met in the previous book.
So, this is formatted like the first book in that each chapter is from the POV of one of the main characters. Ashley, Katie, or Rachel. In the first book, I had problems with this because I expected the book to be mainly from Ashely’s point of view, since, you know, I thought she was the main character.
However, this time, I understand what’s going on. Snider does a good job of developing the characters of both Ashley and Katie.
This is a good book in that there was some mystery as to Ashley’s illness. When that came to a head, things picked up on that front. I won’t give spoilers, but the guilty party wasn’t the one I expected.
I did figure out the issue with Rachel, but I don’t think it was meant to be a surprise. It was just finding the evidence. And, yeah, you get the anticipation of “will it end the way you think it will” at the end.
Okay, minor issues. A couple spelling errors. For a practicing attorney, Snider should have caught that one of the “cannons” of law is not quite right. Lol.
I like when all things are wrapped up in the end, whether good or bad. A character was heavily involved with this story, Josh Martin, who as a slick cop who flirted with Katie a LOT. She seemed to respond. Yet, the author didn’t make any resolution whether they got together. The reader might infer from the ending, but it would have been nice to know. Ditto with Ashley and Tom. Yes, there was a statement near the end that it would take time for Ashely to, maybe, come around, but the epilogue didn’t mention anything.
Maybe the answers will be in the third book.
If I recall, I gave the previous book a purple belt rank. This one gets bumped up to
Blue Belt