Rating: 
Summary: delightful legal thriller
Review: Joanne Kuhlman, an assistant district attorney in Ventura County, California, is not having an easy time of it personally or professionally. Two years ago her husband became so involved in gambling that he stood to lose everything they jointly owned. He ran, taking their two children with him and giving them all different IDs so they couldn't easily be traced. It took a private detective two years to find them and return the children to Joanne
While the threesome struggle to bring a bit of normalcy into their lives following the trauma, Joanne is assigned a robbery case that led to the arrest of three defendants. Since none of them have a violent background they are released on bail. One of the defendants Ian Decker is mentally disabled and a loose cannon. After he vanishes, everyone including Joanne thinks that the co-defendants, brothers who also dropped out of site, killed him. A shattered Joanna takes step beyond that required by law to see that Ian receives justice.
Nancy Taylor Rosenberg does an astonishingly keen, but believable job of misdirecting the audience on several different levels. CONFLICT OF INTEREST features a protagonist who is strong enough to hold herself together during the worst of times yet remain honest and true to her values when seeking justice in her personal and professional endeavors. This latest Rosenberg work deserves best selling status, as legal thriller fans will relish every delightful reading moment. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A READING THAT DOESN'T MISS A CUE OR A CLUE
Review: Legal thrillers often top bestseller lists due in large part to the can't-put-down yarns spun by popular author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. Here's a can't-stop-listening-to reading of Rosenberg's seventh page-turner by gifted voice artist Laural Merlington. She doesn't miss a cue or a clue in her rendering of this suspense filled law and order tale. Joanne Kulman has enough problems - she's about to divorce her jailed husband and her two teenage offspring are, well, teenagers. Her job as a prosecutor in California's Ventura County has always presented challenges, but this is the biggest of them all. When a convenience store is robbed some young lawbreakers are soon arrested. They're identified by witnesses, and will stand trial. However, Ian, one of the young men is developmentally disturbed, and it soon becomes clear to Joanne that the other boys tricked him into being a part of the robbery. Then, quite suddenly, Ian disappears. Something else is going on besides a plain vanilla heist. She is obligated to try the case, and she is attracted to Ian's good looking lawyer. Conflicts abound in "Conflict Of Interest."
- Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: A READING THAT DOESN'T MISS A CUE OR A CLUE
Review: Legal thrillers often top bestseller lists due in large part to the can't-put-down yarns spun by popular author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. Here's a can't-stop-listening-to reading of Rosenberg's seventh page-turner by gifted voice artist Laural Merlington. She doesn't miss a cue or a clue in her rendering of this suspense filled law and order tale. Joanne Kulman has enough problems - she's about to divorce her jailed husband and her two teenage offspring are, well, teenagers. Her job as a prosecutor in California's Ventura County has always presented challenges, but this is the biggest of them all. When a convenience store is robbed some young lawbreakers are soon arrested. They're identified by witnesses, and will stand trial. However, Ian, one of the young men is developmentally disturbed, and it soon becomes clear to Joanne that the other boys tricked him into being a part of the robbery. Then, quite suddenly, Ian disappears. Something else is going on besides a plain vanilla heist. She is obligated to try the case, and she is attracted to Ian's good looking lawyer. Conflicts abound in "Conflict Of Interest."
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Good thriller, but not upto the Rosenberg standard
Review: Nancy Taylor Rosenberg is one of the recognized big shots in the legal thriller genre, a name that stands right alongside Lisa Scottoline or Perri O'Shaughnessy as top women legal thriller authors. Her debut work Mitigating Circumstances & the subsequent Interest of Justice were marvelous reads, & I was looking somewhat on those lines when I started Conflict of Interest. However, it's not on par with the author's other works. Joanne Kuhlman, a feisty & dedicated District Attorney is assigned the task of bringing to book three defendants accused of robbery, Tom & Gary Rubinsky & the developmentally disabled, Ian Decker. Decker's attorney Arnold Dreiser, & his mother insist that Ian was a victim of exploitation by the Rubinsky brothers, & that he did not know that he was committing a crime. Kuhlman is sympathetic towards Decker but cannot bring herself to believe that he should be absolved from liability. A couple of days later Decker disappears & it is feared that he might have been done away with by the Rubinsky brothers. A mysterious telephone call that Decker has been killed prompts Kuhlman to investigate more into the matter & what follows is a suspense-filled adventure where the attorney finds the half-truths & the full truths. Conflict of Interest, like other Rosenberg works is action- & plot-packed. However, readers looking for legal drama or courtroom action concerning the nature of liability that can be fixed upon a developmentally disabled person are bound to be disappointed, as the work does not delve much into this aspect, though the author acknowledges that the issue is of great significance. On a side-track, there is the story of Kuhlman's troubles with her former husband, there is also a flashback of the life of Eli Connors, a former CIA Agent who keeps a watch on Joanne from any possible attack from her former husband. However these sub plots & stories scantily help in character building or in plot building in the final scheme of things. Personally, I feel that an ideal ending for the work should have been a courtroom drama where the issue of the developmentally disabled are brought to light, as John Grisham did with The Chamber when he brought to fore the justifiability of the death penalty; or, the rights & privileges of gays & AIDS patients as Ron Nyswaner did with Philadelphia (yes, the Tom Hanks movie!); & the reader be given the opportunity to delve more into the legal issue & form his own opinion. The author missed a golden opportunity to deal in the same manner to bring to fore legal issues of the nature of liability of developmentally disabled persons. As an ordinary thriller the book is engrossing, but for the devotees of Rosenberg novels, Conflict of Interest is a disappointment. The blurb promises a lot, but in the end it's just not up to the Rosenberg standard.
Rating: 
Summary: Haphazard
Review: The author doesn't stay true to her characters. The plot may have been a good one but she's telling to many stories in one book and no one stays true to their character. What is anyone's motivation! Only the criminals make sense.
Rating: 
Summary: Painful story but a good one
Review: The painful part of the story does not refer to writing or plotting but to the abuse of a developmentally disabled young adult by two hoodlum "friends" and his poor treatment by the justice system. The story revolves around the trial of Ian Decker, the developmentally disabled adult and his friends, the Rubinsky brothers for the robbery of a convenience store. Decker's attorney tries to convince the Assistant DA, Joanne Kuhlman, the heroine of the story, that Ian was an unwilling dupe. Kuhlman, who recently spent all her funds to successfully find her two children who were abducted by her ex-husband for two years, has to face her own issues with re-establishing a relationship with a rebellious pregnant 15 year old and a 12 year old who looks 16. The story proceeds on several parallel lines, following the Decker/Rubinsky story as well as developments in Joanna's own life. The manipulation of Decker by his friends--including stealing his credit card, getting him expelled from his subsidized housing, stealing cars from his family business is difficult to watch happen. When it appears that Decker has been murdered, all join in to find his body and murderer. I enjoyed the development of the characters and Joanna's personal story. Despite the quick way many of the loose ends were resolved in a "happily ever after" way in the end, this is still a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: She never ceases to amaze me
Review: This book, like all of the books I have read by Nancy Taylor Rosenburg, is awesome. I couldn't put it down! She has a way of making a leisurely activity into a full-time job. Kudos to the author.
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