Question of Trust

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Question of Trust (Mass Market Paperback) Pub. Date: 2/21/2012 Publisher: Mira

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Overview

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if you can't tell which is which?

When attorney Izzy McNeil's home is broken into, right after her boyfriend, Theo, moves in, she ignores the coincidence. When Theo is arrested on charges of fraud, she wants to believe he's innocent. But when a neighbor is found dead, she can't ignore that something is very, very wrong.

Izzy also can't forget how Theo was inexplicably turned down for a mortgage. Or his recent moody silences. Or how a stranger warned her that Theo needs to "accept responsibility"

Thrust into Theo's case, Izzy must walk the line between attorney and lover to prove that Theo is innocent. But only Izzy can decide whether trusting Theo will keep her safeor throw her into unimaginable danger.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In her fifth Izzy McNeil mystery (after Claim of Innocence), former attorney Caldwell falls into the serial character trap, lazily bringing readers up to speed on Izzy's transformation from a civil to a criminal lawyer and her moonlighting job as a PI. Izzy also harkens back to last year's lover—her ex-fiancé, Sam— the murder of her friend Jane, and the sudden reappearance of her dad, but only gives enough details to confuse. Quirky Izzy's new fling, Theo—eight years her junior and partner in a successful web development company—is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office for money laundering and wire fraud, but he claims he's innocent. Throw in a boatload of cocaine, a Mexican drug cartel, a dead neighbor (whose death, as noted in the Prologue but not revisited until the final third of the book, drags the novel along), and a hefty sum of missing money, and the result is a story that tries hard but doesn't produce much suspense. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Izzy McNeil (Claim of Innocence) is still testing the waters of criminal law, getting her feet wet, and learning to use the word alleged more often. What she doesn't expect is the arrest of her squeaky-clean, much younger beau on federal charges of bilking his company. Izzy is caught between trying to trust Theo and her doubts about his innocence. Then there's a new twist when a client accused of "allegedly" drug trafficking wants out of her firm if it continues to represent Theo. The case gets murkier as the evidence points in a direction that neither Izzy nor Theo likes. VERDICT With her strong female protagonist, Caldwell will draw in fans of Lisa Gardner, while the legal thriller aspect will attract Michael Connelly devotees. Her latest mesmerizing, twisty mystery will keep her readers on the edge of their seats, sweating bullets until the finale. Her characters are smart, savvy, and überreal in the roles she has expertly created for them. Even though this novel is part of a series, it does well as a stand-alone.—Debbie Haupt, St. Charles City/Cty. Lib. Dist., MO

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780778313212
Publisher: Mira
Publication date: 2/21/2012
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 384
Sales rank: 209,644
Series: Izzy McNeil Series , #5
Product dimensions: 4.16 (w) x 6.64 (h) x 1.04 (d)

Meet the Author

Laura Caldwell, a former trial lawyer, is currently a professor and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She is the author of eleven novels and one non-fiction book. She is a nation-wide speaker and the founder of Life After Innocence, which helps innocent people begin their lives again after being wrongfully imprisoned. Laura has been published in thirteen languages and over twenty countries. To learn more, please visit www.lauracaldwell.com.

Read an Excerpt

"We 've got a boatload of cocaine. Literally."

I looked at my friend Maggie, barely five feet tall, standing in the doorway of my office. (Technically it was her office, since I was employed by Maggie and her grandfather, Martin Bristol, at Bristol & Associates.)

"You know," I said, "when I met you in law school, I never thought I would hear you say things like that."

Maggie frowned for a second, pushing her blond, wavy hair out of her eyes. "It's the Cortaderos."

"Oh." I leaned my elbows on the desk, interested. I'd been hearing about the Cortaderos for a long time. They were clients of Maggie and Martin's. They were a Mexican drug cartel family (allegedly a cartel family, I should say), but I hadn't been privy to the details of any cases.

She sighed and waved a hand. "They're always getting into trouble." This was not said without fondness. Maggie had a soft spot for most of her wayward clients.

Q, short for Quentin, stuck his bald, black head in my office, as if he'd been lingering outside the door. "Did I just hear something about a drug bust?" Q had been my assistant when we were at the white-glove firm of Baltimore & Brown. He was the office manager now at Bristol & Associates. But more important, Q loved a juicy story, especially on an otherwise slow Monday afternoon.

Maggie slumped into a seat across from my desk, then waved Q inside. "Have you ever seen the boats parked on the river? By Lower Wacker?" she asked.

"Sure," I said. "Sam and I did a sunset cruise once. We went through the locks and out onto Lake Michigan."

"They did a post-Pride cruise one year," Q said. "Epic." He cleared his throat. "That was before I was monogamous, of course."

"Of course," Maggie and I echoed.

I nodded at her to continue.

"Right. Well, the Cortaderos own one of those boats. It was about to be taken down the Mississippi for winter, but it was seized today."

"And cocaine was found on it?"

"A lot." She sighed the way a mom would when discussing a teen who spent too much time in front of the computer. "Forty-five kilos."

"What's that worth?" Q asked.

"Millions. Many."

"Many millions?" Q said.

Maggie nodded. "They usually wouldn't have that much in one place. Strange. I don't know what's going on with the Cortaderos." She looked out my window, lapsing into silence. There was nothing to see there except the blue-tinted high-rise across the street.

Q and I exchanged glances. Maggie had been like this lately—a little distracted, and also a little secretive, closing her mouth suddenly when she seemed about to disclose something, lapsing into long, thoughtful silences. I wondered what was going on behind the scenes at the firm.

"What were you saying, Mags?" I prompted her.

She blinked a few times as if clearing something, coming back to us. "Oh, um" She looked at me. "Right. Right. So, I need you on this, Iz. I have a motion to suppress that's taking a lot of time."

The other thing Maggie had been doing lately was throwing a lot of casework my way. I appreciated that, since I was a civil lawyer by training now learning the oh-so-different criminal defense world. In general, I would do anything in the world for Maggie. Now that she was my boss, I'd certainly do anything she needed for one of her clients, no matter who they were. Drug lords from Mexico, though? Interesting, sure, but actually representing them? That made me nervous.

But this was my job now, I reminded myself. I had to make a living, and although I'd been on top of the world a year ago, I was far from that now. So, I was a criminal defense lawyer. When Maggie threw work my way, I would perform. Because this was my job. One of them. For better or worse.

I sat up straighter. "You need me on this in what way?" I asked Maggie.

"Well, in the short-term, I need you on the boat. Can you go now?"

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