From Publishers Weekly
Hensley (Robak's Run) turns enough good ideas for two books into a single pedestrian tale, pasting its puzzle pieces together with large dollops of coincidence. James Carlos Singer, a struggling new lawyer in Grimsley City, Ky., gets a shot at a steadier income when circuit court judge Simon Daggert signs him on as part-time probation officer and unofficial "judge's lackey." Daggert asks Singer to observe the progress of a case he is trying: Shirley Kentner is charged with arranging the murder of her wealthy husband. Jose Ramon Garcia, the Kentner handyman who confessed to and was convicted of the murder, claims Shirley put him up to it, but Daggert says, "'Something's not right... when I sentenced him, he sat there grinning at me.'" Singer's appointment lands him in the hornet's nest of small-town politics, complicating his work on the Kentner case. Meanwhile, he edgily notes that the "covert Washington group" he once worked for is sniffing around town and wonders about the hit-and-run death of his father, which looks like murder. Less in the way of plot would have meant more satisfaction in this mystery.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Why has Mexican American lawyer Jim Carlos Singer set up his law practice in the fading Ohio River town of Grimsley City, Kentucky? Is it because he went to college there and came back to rejoin his friends and potential business contacts? Is he investigating the mysterious "hit-and-run" death of his father, a used-car salesman? Or is he trying to escape the ultrasecret intelligence agency for which he once worked? When Singer finds that his meager practice isn't even paying the rent on his tiny office, he jumps at the chance to serve as the part-time probation officer for Judge Lionel Daggart. Currently presiding in the nasty trial of a beautiful young woman accused of involvement in the murder of her extremely wealthy husband, Daggart asks Singer to look into the case. The book builds suspense nicely but loses momentum in the last few chapters as too many coincidences strain the reader's patience. Still, Singer is a likable, offbeat character, and the story, while it could have been better, works reasonably well.
George Needham
