| Product: |
Mitigating Circumstances - Nancy Taylor Rosenberg |
| Date: |
10.12.05 (93 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: gripping storyline, superb characters
Disadvantages: some slightly unrealistic character traits
District Attorney Lily Forrester has been dealt a tough card. She has to work long hours, especially after her promotion to Chief District Attorney of the Sex Crimes Division. She has ambitions to be appointed to the bench as a Judge. She is stuck in a broken marriage. She has a difficult teenage daughter to contend with. And in addition to all of these difficulties, she probably has the most troublesome history of any of Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's characters I have encountered to date.
Things appear to be changing for Lily, however. Colleague Richard Fowler, who she has been admiring from afar for a long time, suddenly makes his interest known in her. It appears that things are looking up and becoming happier for Lily - when suddenly her world becomes shaken all over again. An intruder enters her home attacking both herself and her daughter Shana. Lily can handle the trauma that she has herself encountered but she finds it difficult to contend with the pains she knows her daughter will contend with for the rest of her life. In a fit of terror, Lily is faced with a decision - whether to allow the law to deal with the fate of the intruder or whether to take the law into her own hands.
While I have already been an avid fan of Rosenberg's brilliant writing and well-plotted storylines, this work beat all the previous ones I have read and reviewed. It's not a story to be read lightly, you will be faced with some pretty vivid descriptions of Lily's history and some pretty shocking stories involving rapes and other sex crimes. The openness with which she writes and the vividness of the imagery is what makes this book a page-turner. Once she has you hooked, you cannot help but want to continue reading. But do not get me wrong, this is not a book for those who are a little sqeamish or who want a bit of light reading - this one certainly covers heavy in subject-matter.
In her other books, Rosenberg usually limits herself to two plots - the main plot deals with a crime and the sub-plot deals with a romance involving the main character. In this storyline, however, the author integrates more than one sub-plot into the storyline by dealing with the background, history and concerns of individual characters. By way of example, the author decided to give the main detective in the story, Bruce Cunningham, a little more character by describing his family relationship, his desires and feelings about his line of work. Whilst this storyline is not integral to the main plots, it makes the reader sympathise more with the character and understand the situations that he finds himself in better.
The characters are painted brilliantly, as ever - but for some reason Lily Forrester never appeared likeable to me. Whilst I felt sorry for her at times for the difficulties she had to go through in life, I completely failed to sympathise with her in her current situation. At times, she really annoyed me - especially when it came to the romance plot. In her actions I often just wanted to jump into the book and shake her and scream at her for the way she was treating other likeable characters in the story. Richard Fowler, the love interest, appears as a very nice and attrative man to the readers - but in many ways the speed at which the relationship between him and Lily forms makes the reader doubt all his vows of eternal love and devotion. By far the most interesting character is Shana, Lily's daughter, who initially is the stereotypical teenager. However, I felt that Rosenberg probably did not manage to capture appropriately how Shana would really have acted and felt like in real life after being attacked by an intruder.
In the past, I criticised Rosenberg for not bringing stories to an end properly. In this novel, she has truly managed to tie up the loose ends. In the main storyline, she brings the crime plot to a perfect ending, which truly leaves the reader satisfied. She then decided to deal with the romance plot by way of an epilogue - and while she does not give the reader any idea as to how the romance might end, the reader still does not feel like he has been left hanging like in some of her other books.
The book is certainly a page-turner, but easily interruptable if necessary, as the chapters are only about 10 pages long each. The 362 pages are broken into 43 chapters and an epilogue. I would not recommend starting this book if you have little time - as it is the kind of reading that you should be finishing within a few days, not weeks.
And for those of you who are eager to find out how the romance between Lily and Richard proceeds or for those of you who liked the characters, there is extremely good news - the story is continued in the author's novel "Burried evidence" - to be reviewed at another date.
***Further information***
Orion Books
ISBN 1-85797-209-0
Page numbers: 362
Price: £5.99 new (but you can get it cheaper used on Amazon or on ebay)
Summary: A gripping thriller with superb characters.
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