Mitigating Circumstances

Rating:
Summary: Novel of pure vengeance
Review: District Attorney Lily Forrester has recently been promoted to Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit. She is glad to get the appointment but it came at a high price. She is unhappy with her marriage and her relationship with her daughter is deteriorating day by day.

Lily decides to get a fresh start when she asks her husband for a divorce and move out to a new apartment. Her life is irrevocably changed when an intruder storms into her home and rapes both her and her daughter, Shana. Lily believes she recognizes her assailant as one of the case files she brought home from work. Without thinking it over she decides to go kill him. She tracks the suspect and shoots him dead without even flinching. She then erases all traces of evidence she can think of that might identify her. She will now try to continue her life and help her daughter.

Unfortunately, things do not go as planned. Both Lily and Shana are still traumatized by the events and they both disagree as to who raped them. Lily wonders if she has made a mistake now that there is a relentless cop investigating the case.

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg does a good job in applying what she knows in this novel. She has worked in law enforcement for many years and has dealt with sexual offenders. The victims and situations felt real as well as the emotional trauma Lily feels for her action. The novel reads like a Lifetime movie but it kept my interest.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't Bother to Finish
Review: I didn't bother to finish this book. The writing is amateurish, and the author's attempts at descriptive narrative are cliche and often repetative. The characters are one-dimensional and predicatable. Overall, this book reads like a bad romance novel disguised as a legal thriller.

Rating:
Summary: good
Review: I haven't read any good books lately (trying to decipher the monotony of Mary Higgins Clark, I suppose) and this book was lying around in my father's office, so I seized the moment and borrowed it. From the very beginning, this cross between John Grisham's "A Time To Kill" and Sandrs Brown's "Charade" captivates the audience and holds on for an entertaining, if somewhat predictable, ride. I recommend this to people who haven't had a good read and would like a fast-paced, realistic novel. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Shallow... breezy... mystery or romance...?
Review: MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES was a disappointing read, considering the excerpt on book jacket had promise. Dramatic words with no drama, moving very slowly from the beginning, into the middle and to the end. Author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg offers a repetitious tale of reminiscences, sadness & anger -- a romance more than a mystery.

Chief character is an ambitious, yet troubled LA District Attorney Lillian (Lily) Forrester. She has an open door to reach her goal as an appointed judge.

As a couple, John and Lily Forrestor are in a non-loving marriage, with a disturbed 13-year old daughter Shana. Not in control as she once thought, Lily's destructive past involving her grandfather, evolves a vengeful, angry woman to the brink of mental explosion. Her rage is released by committing a haunting crime to avenge a current unspeakable tragedy imposed upon herself & daughter Shana.

Although a little rough around the edges, the best character - Detective Cunningham offers the read some zing with some humor, concerns, actions and the desire to leave LA and return to Omaha, a much saner environment. A murder committed, a sketch of a person observed at the scene of the crime raises Detective Cunningham's suspicions as the sketch resembles District Attorney Forrestor.

The author does not complete the story of husband John - his path taken just disappears; a chapter devoted to daughter Shana in which her rage from tragic events is described does not continue to conclusion. The ending of the book is "different" from what a reader would expect, especially from the justice system.

I did enjoy one expression: "The train had finally derailed and the cars were all overturned. All that remained was the baggage." This read is like a train that never picks up speed, consistently changes tracks, and the baggage is lost. Review based on hardcover 1993

Recommend Sara Paretsky's GUARDIAN ANGEL & GHOST COUNTRY.