Rating: 
Summary: A geat read
Review: Alexander Feldman was born with the face of a monster. To make matters worse, his beautiful-looking vain parents wanted him out of their sight. At fourteen, unable to accept further rejection or the stunned stares, Alex tried suicide. He failed and Dr. Graham Mirick accepts responsibility for the distressed teen.The duo moves to Oregon where Alex learns to channel his anger and soon grows into an outstanding citizen though he stays by himself. However, a young girl tells a series of lies that leads to a chain of events culminating with the police charging Alex with murder. Barbara Holloway agrees to defend Alex on a case that she knows she will lose if she can't find some holes in the prosecution's case. Kate Wilhelm is one of the Supreme Court members when it comes to legal procedures that grab the interest of the audience. Her latest tale includes a female Perry Mason(ette) for the new century. Using the theme of not judging a book by its cover, the man with the monster's visage is the most beautiful character in DESPERATE MEASURES (think of The Man Without a Face). Harriet Klausner
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Summary: IT'S A TALE AS OLD AS TIME--RETOLD AS A LEGAL THRILLER
Review: As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I admire Kate Wilhelm's clever reworking of The Beauty and the Beast. In DESPERATE MEASURES, Barbara Holloway finds herself at first in opposition to her father, Frank. Gus Marchand is murdered, and there are two suspects. Frank's client dies mysteriously, yet Frank does not want the blame for the Marchand homicide to be placed on his client. Barbara's client, for awhile, remains nameless. She is highly protective of the man who turns out to be Alex Feldman, a horribly disfigured man who had been previously accused of stalking the murdered man's teenaged daughter. The plot grows complicated, and Alex is obviously carrying secrets. Shelley, an associate of Barbara's, sees beyond Alex's disfigurement and into his heart. Yet the murder must still be solved. Great book. One of Wilhelm's best.
Rating:
Summary: IT'S A TALE AS OLD AS TIME--RETOLD AS A LEGAL THRILLER
Review: As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I admire Kate Wilhelm's clever reworking of The Beauty and the Beast. In DESPERATE MEASURES, Barbara Holloway finds herself at first in opposition to her father, Frank. Gus Marchand is murdered, and there are two suspects. Frank's client dies mysteriously, yet Frank does not want the blame for the Marchand homicide to be placed on his client. Barbara's client, for awhile, remains nameless. She is highly protective of the man who turns out to be Alex Feldman, a horribly disfigured man who had been previously accused of stalking the murdered man's teenaged daughter. The plot grows complicated, and Alex is obviously carrying secrets. Shelley, an associate of Barbara's, sees beyond Alex's disfigurement and into his heart. Yet the murder must still be solved. Great book. One of Wilhelm's best.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing - too much bias
Review: As usual, Ms. Wilhelm created a great story, with plenty of twists and turns to keep the mind guessing. However, it smacked of bias. The character of the murdered man, Gus Marchand, is flat. He's just a bad guy. He calls himself a Christian, but he is a hateful, bigoted, controlling man who demeans his wife and beats his children. There is no other side to this man, no balance, no reason for why he is such a person. It is as though Marchand has no good feelings about anything or anyone, and everything he has ever done is bad. Towards the end of the book, Barbara Holloway blames Marchand for everything, even the murder of a woman by her lover who feared he would be exposed, because "Gus Marchand was a zealot who was determined to impose his belief system on everyone around him." In fact, anyone clearly identified as a Christian is painted with a broad brush of bias. The wife is a weak-willed woman willing to submit to Marchand's domination of the home and abusive manner towards those in the community who don't share his beliefs. The pastor of the Baptist church Marchand attended saw Marchand as a good, honest man who never lied, a hero in the home, and at the end of his testimony in court, he appeared the buffoon as he loudly launched into a prayer to protect the daughter from the devil. Many of the townspeople, who were also members of Marchand's church in the rural Oregon town, blindly followed along with his hateful rhetoric, and were too often just stupid. Characters not associated as Christians were real people, humans that showed compassion, felt pain and anger, had high principles but demonstrated flaws, and so on. So much was well-written: one felt ill for the hatred and abuse Alex had wrongly received over the years. Unfortunately, it just appeared to have too much bias against one group to suit my tastes.
Rating:
Summary: leaves you wanting more!
Review: Barbara Holloway takes on yet another difficult, unusual case. But this time her father is on the same case. Different suspect. Can they sort out their relationship enough to remain father and daughter? Or will the lawyer in them both make life unbearable as each tries to make their case for their client? Fantastic character development and descriptions.
Rating:
Summary: leaves you wanting more!
Review: Barbara Holloway takes on yet another difficult, unusual case. But this time her father is on the same case. Different suspect. Can they sort out their relationship enough to remain father and daughter? Or will the lawyer in them both make life unbearable as each tries to make their case for their client? Fantastic character development and descriptions.
Rating: 
Summary: Disparate Measures
Review: I concur with the reviewer who noted Wilhelm's one-demensional treatment of Christian characters, as opposed to the depth with which she treats characters who either espouse no religion or are not identified as belonging to a particular religious sect. It smacks of intellectual laziness to take the easy route and ridicule those whose deeply held religious beliefs placed them at odds with (in this case) the education establishment. While it's true that nobody is perfect, and it would be just as unfortunate if Wilhelm had attributed perfection to these characters, the story would have been far better had the Marchand parents and other Christian characters been painted with more than one color.
Those considering the unabridged audio version of this book might want to make another selection. I'm not sure whether Marguerite Gavin always narrates like this, or whether she was just having a bad day, but her work is alternately jarring, grating, and outright bad when it comes to her (mis)pronounciation of well-known Pacific Northwest geography. One such example is her pronounciation of "Willamette," which will drive anyone familiar with the Northwest, the Willamette River, or Willamette University up the proverbial wall.
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Summary: An unusual premise
Review: In this mystery,Kate Wilhelm uses a disfigured man as the main suspect for a murder and as the story unfolds she makes us aware of how much importance society places on looks.I thought this was an unusual premise for a murder mystery.As always her books are suspenseful,surprising and this story also has a happy ending.I highly recommend this author especially if you love the Pacific Northwest.
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Summary: A tale of fear and prejudice...
Review: is crafted by Kate Wilhelm in the 6th legal thriller in this series. Alex Feldman, victim of an unfortunate birth, still manages to live a rich and full life with the help of his doctor-mentor, Graham Minick. There is no question in the reader's mind that Alex did not murder his neighbor, Gus Marchand, a man who hides his bigotry and small-mindedness behind the cloak of his religion. Because of Alex's strange appearance and history, however, the law enforcement agency and the townspeople of Opal Creek, Oregon persecute and prosecute him for the crime. Barbara Holloway and her father Frank find themselves in an adversarial position on the crime. Barbara's secret client is Alex, and Frank is trying to protect an old friend, who is subsequently murdered in the second of two mysteries, from being accused of the crime. The events and conflict leading up to the courtroom confrontation are merely a canvas for the excellent and crisp writing that Wilhelm uses to portray the courtroom battle. Before it is over, Kate and Frank have joined forces, and the ending is much more satisfactory than a not guilty verdict would have been. Wilhelm commands and holds your interest, without gratuitous sex or violence in her novels. Her main character, Barbara Holloway, is a gutsy, intelligent, and articulate attorney. Wilhelm never fails to surround her with an equally interesting cast. Desperate Measures is an excellent read that keeps you guessing and successfully weaves a double mystery plot. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Grabs You!
Review: Loved it, but I had 2 choices for the who done it and it turned out they both played a key part in the suspence. Made you want to read on and find out how the other trials turned out, plus Shelley's futute plans. Love these court room dramas. Do all lawyers solve the crimes for their wrongly accused clients, or only in the mystery authors' minds?
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