Down the Rabbit Hole

When everyone is in denial, how do you find the truth?

Jilly Truitt has made a name for herself as one of the top criminal defense lawyers in the city. Where once she had to take just about any case to keep her firm afloat, now she has her pick—and she picks winners.

So when Joseph Quentin asks her to defend his wife, who has been charged with murdering her own mother in what the media are calling a mercy killing, every instinct tells Jilly to say no. Word on the street is that Vera Quentin is in denial, refusing to admit to the crime and take a lenient plea deal. Quentin is a lawyer’s lawyer, known as the Fixer in legal circles, and if he can’t help his wife, who can?

Against her better judgment, Jilly meets with Vera and reluctantly agrees to take on her case. Call it intuition, call it sympathy, but something about Vera makes Jilly believe she’s telling the truth. Now, she has to prove that in the courtroom against her former mentor turned opponent, prosecutor Cy Kenge—a man who has no qualms about bending the rules.

As the trial approaches, Jilly scrambles to find a crack in the case and stumbles across a dark truth hanging over the Quentin family. But is it enough to prove Vera’s innocence? Or is Jilly in denial herself?

Thrumming with tension, Denial is a riveting thriller about the lengths we will go to for the ones we love and the truths we hold dear.

After reading the first novel in this series, Full Disclosure, I didn’t have the highest of high expectations. Yes, I was still interested in reading the second book in the series by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, but I definitely readied myself for more of the same from the first book. However, I was actually completely blown away by this book. Since when has the second book in the series ever been better than the first?! Overall this was just dramatically better for me, and I do wonder if it was due to the feedback from the first book.

Denial follows our defence lawyer extraordinaire, Jilly Truit, in another set of proceedings once again. As usual, Jilly is fighting the uphill battle, as the case once again seems locked and done. In a locked house, with no alarms tripped, frail and old Olivia Stanton passed away in her sleep from a morphine overdose. The only person in the house at the time? Her daughter, Vera, sleeping soundly upstairs. Vera soundly maintains her innocence, even as the flames of the trial licks at her heels. Just how will Jilly be able to defend her client in such a tough situation?

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discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Believable Fictional Romances

February 16, 2024 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

February 16: What Makes a Fictional Romance Believable?

Prompts: In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a romance related topic! What makes romance in books believable and compelling? What makes fictional romance feel fake? Who are your favorite bookish couples?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! Today’s topic is about fictional romances, and how they’re written. Perfect for the Valentine’s Day season that just passed. I’m definitely interested in what you all have to say for what makes romances believable for you, since it’s likely different for everyone depending how you read.

I think for me, the real ones and compelling always take time to develop, or at least have some sort of back story to back up the believability. Love at first sight is kind of passé and we really need more than just some fairytale romance for it to be believable. I think it’s compelling when the author can write it in such a way that you kind of think or know that the romance might be coming, which starts to get you hooked and interested. For me, I think what works best is when we get to see some character development, or at least know more about a character, before we dive straight into full-blown relationship. Side-by-side development of character and relationship works too, but I think a lot of the believability comes from the reader’s understanding of the character and then the subsequent understanding for why the romantic interest would be a compelling fit.

For me, love at first sight, with no real subsequent explanation is just a little bit unrealistic. I mean sometimes it can work, but for the most part it just seems like a cop out from providing a more fleshed out relationship history or any character development. Enemies to lovers is also a trope that is dangerous in execution, because the turning point can feel too sudden in the story (even though we basically always know it’s coming). If the reader can see no real basis for a relationship, and the story relies on that relationship, then it will not be believable and seem fake. If the story doesn’t really rely on the nature of the relationship, then it doesn’t really matter whether a side couple’s romance feels real or not. But the more the relationship is explored or used as a major plot point, there better be some explanation!

I really enjoyed the couple from the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. It felt light and natural, and although of course it was obvious from miles away, I still felt the execution was appropriate, and the transitions works to create a compelling story about the two main characters. The romantic relationships in The Song of Achilles and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo were also so compelling and well-done, and while they’re not necessarily my “favourite couples,” I definitely really enjoyed the story around their relationship.

What about you all? What makes a relationship believable and compelling? Or do you just take what you read at face value? Let me know in the comments below!

3.5 star

Review: The Golden Gate by Amy Chua

February 14, 2024February 14, 2024 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Amy Chua’s debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change.

In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still.

The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now Iris’s sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth―not the powerful influence of Bainbridges’ grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley’s district attorney, or the interest of China’s First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings―Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.

Chua’s page-turning debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history.

Written by the Tiger Mom herself, when I saw this book at the airport bookstore of all places, I just had to pick it up for myself and read it on the plane. And I did. It was definitely a spontaneous purchase but honestly I don’t have many regrets—it’s always nice to be one of the early readers of a book when they come out. It was a thriller/murder mystery written by an Asian female lawyer; the choice was easy.

The Golden Gate follows our detective, Al Sullivan, as he investigates the high-profile murder of Walter Wilkinson in the luxurious Claremont hotel. Setting place in 1944 as the “present,” Al investigates the case where all three of the Bainbridge heiresses have been implicated in the murder as possible suspects. With a high-profile murder, there are also many other powerful forces at play, including China’s First Lady, and the suspects’ grandmother, Genevieve Bainbridge. Just how did this unfortunate family get involved in such a messy situation, and who will end up being punished for the crime?

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