A book full of characters (Conflict of Interest - Nancy Taylor Rosenberg)

Name: Delicate_Orchid1

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Product:	Conflict of Interest - Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
Date:	08.12.05 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characters

Disadvantages: weak ending

“Conflict of interest” was one of those books that I bought because it was cheap and because I needed something to read. I did not have high expectations from this piece of work. Firstly, because I had never heard of the author and, secondly, because of the cheesy back cover on the hardcopy of the book from which the author is smiling back at you in a cheesy way that you would expect from a romance novelist.

The first chapter nearly sent me to sleep – and it was with great reluctance that started on the second one. Much to my surprise, the second chapter just hit me like a shot of caffeine – it woke me up and suddenly made the read highly addictive.

The story concentrates on the life of Joanne Kuhlman, a district attorney who not only has battles to fight in the courtroom, but also in her own home. In her past lies this not-so-pretty story of her ex-husband kidnapping her children – and much of the book shows the real life struggles that such her faces. In her working life, Joanne is prosecuting three defendants for robbery – two real thugs and one young man, Ian Decker, who truly does not seem to understand that a crime has taken place. In the middle of the trial, Ian disappears – and suspicions arouse that either he concoted the crime himself or that he has been murdered in order to keep his mouth shut. Much of the story revolves around trying to uncover what happens to this young man.

Amazingly, however, the plot just seems to bypass the reader and become of secondary nature. It is a plot that we have all heard of before, no different from any other average crime novel. What makes this work stand out is how vividly the author manages to portray the characters in this story. I hope I am not misinterpreting the author’s intentions when I say that her true goal was to make the reader care about one character in particular – Ian Decker. In chapter 2, she portrays him as such a sweet and loving man, slightly naïve with a low IQ – and manages to make the reader want to become his guardian. The reader feels with Ian every step along the way. When he is being naïve, when he is being conned into doing things he does not understand, the reader wants to scream out loud and stop him from entering into these situations. And during the whole reading process the reader hurries along to find the answer to one question only – what happened to Ian Decker?

The other characters in the story are realistic and interesting, but none stand out as much as Ian Decker does. Yet, one develops sentiments towards every single character while reading the story. There is Joanne, a woman who has been hurt in the past, now a single mother, tyring to be the perfect “Mom” and at the same time trying to love again. There is the rebellious teenage daughter, who cannot quite understand why things have gone wrong. There is the perfect son, against whom the rebellious teenage daughter can never live up. And there are the thugs, so cruel to the rest of the world that the reader wants to rewrite the plot himself to introduce a policeman into the story who will arrest the thugs and put an end to everyone’s misery. All of these characters might be stereotypical and ordinary, however, the way the author portrays them gives them a real bit of personality.

The writing style of the book is simple, the dialogue is real. As the story jumps from present to past and back, the chapters are headed with dates and times rather than with numbers – giving the reader a real idea of how the timeline should be drawn. The chapters are short and allow for easy interruption, although I found myself rushing through the book without much pausing. The story just captures the reader.

Though I never felt that the plot was actually the dominant part of the book, its weakness can be felt towards the end of the story. Suddenly the author rushes towards finishing of the storyline. My immediate thought was that she had found herself close to the submission deadline and lacked the inspiration to write a well-rounded finishing chapter. Although the plot is not left open-ended, the reader does suddenly feel cheated. The reader wants to know what happens to the characters. He does not want to be left hanging.

Despite the weak ending, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would like to read more works of this author as a result of it.


Further info:

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
http://www.orionbooks.co.uk

ISBN 0 75 285183 7 (paperback)
ISBN 0 75 283816 4 (hardcopy)

Price: £17.99 hardcopy
£6.99 paperback

Summary: An enjoyable read that benefits from great characters and suffers from a weak ending.