Sandra Nichols Found Dead

by George V. Higgins Narrated by George Guidall

Overview

Sizzling with betrayal and murder, Higgins' tale is sprinkled with earthy dialogue and savvy characters. When Sandra Nichols, the wife of a wealthy businessman, is found dead in a Massachusetts wetland, respected criminal defense attorney Jerry Kennedy sheds his reclusive life to become her children's legal guardian. He digs for evidence and turns up a missing clue that begins a domino effect-exposing the killer.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972), Higgins reinvented the language of the mystery novel with artfully natural dialogue that cried out for reading aloud. Recently (in Defending Billy Ryan), Jerry Kennedy, Boston's slick but compassionate criminal defense lawyer, and his friends have tended to wax somewhat long-winded, though with the charm of a old friends. Here, Kennedy has been appointed by a former classmate, now a judge, to try a civil wrongful death suit. He is working for the three children of Sandra Nichols to prove what the police couldn't-that her most recent husband, a rich drunk named Peter Wade, hired someone to kill her. Kennedy and his cronies talk endlessly, about everything from photography to old cases and clients. But each time Higgins reaches the point of conversation overload, he hooks back into the action with a forward-moving insight, clue or plot twist. Readers are urged to stick through the chapters full of conversations about previous conversations, reporting on old meetings and hearings, that set the scene for the typically clever solution that Kennedy engineers. (May)

Library Journal

Much-respected criminal defense attorney Jerry Kennedy is coerced into becoming the legal guardian of the three surviving children of Sandra Nichols, the murdered wife of the wealthy, unscrupulous Peter Wade. Kennedy has been living the life of a recluse, allowing nothing to touch him since his divorce. Now, on behalf of the children, he goes after Wade, who may have had his wife killed for the sake of convenience. As lawyers go, Kennedy is one smart mensch. He cleverly manages to tie all the facts of the case into a neat little legal bundle that Wade cannot undo. Higgins (Swan Boats at Four, LJ 7/95) is a grandmaster of the written word. Through Kennedy's running dialog with those around him, he creates an intimacy between the reader and his characters and offers great insight into the way an attorney works for a client. This nugget of legal machination should be purchased by all public libraries.-Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio Hill, David. Sacred Dust.

Kirkus Reviews

What would be an ordinary case for any other lawyer—the murder of thrice- (or maybe only twice-) married Sandra Nichols—emerges at the far side of Higgins's looking glass in dazzlingly kaleidoscopic slabs of dialogue.

Judge Henry Lawler is convinced that Sandra, whose body was found months after she disappeared, was murdered by her latest ex, the wealthy, idle Peter Wade. And he tells his old classmate Jerry Kennedy, whom he wants to recruit, that it won't be easy to nail him: Chances are that Peter, who's never raised a finger in his life, didn't break his pattern this time, but hired somebody—probably his old bud Brian Ross, a "terminal marine" whose own liaison with Sandra is memorialized in a "Semper Fi" tattoo she's wearing in a very private place. With no obvious date for the murder (Peter's prissy lawyer is objecting even to the word murder) and no likely way to place Peter at the scene, a lesser legal avenger would be hamstrung. But Kennedy, that well-known criminal attorney (Penance for Jerry Kennedy, 1985, etc.) who doesn't do civil, has agreed to take the case as a wrongful-death suit on behalf of Sandra's three children. So he doesn't have to prove Peter's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; all he has to do is prove a 51% likelihood of guilt. Tossing off dozens of Higgins's trademark anecdotes along the way about Sandra's abusive father, her spouses (including one casual bigamist), and everyone else who ever knew her, Kennedy eventually confronts his clients: Lucy, who likes to cut herself with a razor (but treats each cut with antiseptic); demurely bulimic Maggie; and Jeffrey, who gets followed from place to place by suspicious fires. The upshot is sad, sordid, unsurprising, and deeply satisfying.

Like Swan Boats at Four (1995), this fabulously shaggy narrative may remind bemused newcomers of Achilles endlessly pursuing the tortoise. Fans will know exactly what to expect, and treasure it accordingly.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170967445
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	04/22/2011
Series:	Jerry Kennedy Novels , #4
Edition description:	Unabridged

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