I love a good legal drama either on TV or in a book form, so I when Dorothy contacted me about reviewing her new book I was only too pleased to oblige.
The Heart to Kill by Dorothy M Place: My Review
Blurb from The Back Cover
Sarah, a student at Northwestern University Law School, returns to her apartment to find two telephone messages. The first is that she has not been chosen for a coveted internship for which her father had arranged an interview; the second is that Sarah’s best friend in high school, JoBeth Ruland, has murdered her two children.
To mislead her father about her failure to obtain the internship, Sarah decides to secure a position on JoBeth’s defence team, and, against his wishes, returns to her family home in Eight Mile Junction, South Carolina.
She sets out to become a vital member of her friend’s defence team and to regain favour with her father, but she is not well prepared for working in a community rife with chauvinism, malice, duplicity and betrayal.
Her efforts are met with the benevolent amusement of the senior law partner, the resentment of the expert trail attorney, the rush to judgement by the folks of Eight Mile Junction, and discovery of the role of several individuals in the degradation of JoBeth.
Sarah’s discoveries of the underlying issues that precipitated her friend’s murderous act initiates a major change in her life.
My Thoughts on The Book
I started reading The Heart to Kill expecting a gritty, fast paced legal thriller. It does state that the book is literary fiction, which isn’t a genre I generally read, but I was willing to give it a go.
The first part of the book is mainly concerned with Sarah and her relationships with her father, mother, JoBeth and the other people working at the law firm. We get a good picture of Sarah and what she’s all about as a character but I would have preferred to get straight into the main story and build up this picture as we went.
I felt quite sorry for Sarah as she faces obstacle after obstacle, but I also felt she did nothing to help herself which made for an interesting character that I had mixed feelings about. I really like characters like this as they feel far more real than the ones who never do anything to frustrate you.
There wasn’t a whole lot of detail about the case which left me a bit disappointed – this book could have been brilliant if the case had been gone into in more detail and we’d seen more of the legal process and the actual trial – but in the second half of the book, we did get a glimpse into what was going on here.
I particularly enjoyed the parts where Sarah struggled to equate the memories of her friend with someone who could murder her children. I also enjoyed the parts where Sarah put the pieces together about how JoBeth’s tragic circumstances led to her committing this crime. I wasn’t overly convinced by her theory, but it was still interesting to see how she came to it.
I did see the twist coming, but it didn’t spoil the reading experience, and I enjoyed Sarah’s reaction to it.
I felt the ending let the book down a bit as nothing was really resolved.
Conclusion and Rating
If you’re looking for a legal drama you can get your teeth into, this probably isn’t for you.
However, if you’re looking for a well written, easy to read book that details a woman’s struggles against various obstacles under pinned by the motivation of being desperate to help her friend, this is a good choice.
Overall, I would give The Heart to Kill a solid 3/5.
This could have been a five if the pacing was faster, there was more emphasis on the legal side of things and the ending had been stronger, although in fairness, the book fits the literary fiction genre well so if that’s your thing, it’s a good choice.
The Heart to Kill is available now.
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Disclaimer: I was gifted a copy of The Heart to Kill in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. As an avid reader, I would never recommend a book I didn’t truly enjoy.
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