Graham B. (graysand) reviewed on 9/24/2010 + 18 more book reviews

A good legal thriller, lives up to the the genre. This is the first book by Barbar Parker I've stumbled over, will definitely read more. Ms. Parker listed as a former prosecutor, so she knows her stuff...

However, there was one aspect of this novel that I found very disturbing, and I certainly hope that is not reflective of Ms. Parker's life, or of the law profession as a whole: The main protagonist in this book is a single mother of a 10 year old daughter, and throughout the book the child is constantly ignored or disappointed by her mother constantly placing work-priorities ahead of her daughter, or the child is being scolded for being rude -- when in fact she appears to be simply attempting to call out to her mother for some minimal attention and perhaps at least one unbroken promise -- and the protagonist continually places job, romanitc love, and detective-work far ahead of her daughter. As a parent, I found this repeated theme extremely disturbing. What is also disturbing is the way in which this child-neglect is written makes it appear as if it is construed by the author as normal, and that the child should have just understood that her mother had no time for her. Appalling, in my eyes.

I hope Ms. Parker did not raise her own children in this neglectful manner :-(

Note that all of this is actually incidental to the story line,
but I did find it disturbing....

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