RED HOT LIES

Author: Laura Caldwell ISBN: 9780778326502 6/2009 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MIRA

They say bad things happen in threes. When her fiancé, Sam, disappears on the same day her mentor and biggest client is killed, hotshot Chicago attorney Izzy McNeil starts counting. But trouble keeps coming. Sam is implicated in the client's death, her apartment is broken into and it's not just the authorities who are following her. Now, to find Sam and uncover her client's murderer, Izzy will have to push past limits she never imagined. Lucky for her she's always thrived under pressure, because her world is falling apart. Fast. And the trail of half truths and lies is red-hot.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Caldwell’s first Izzy McNeil mystery is definitely a page turner! This novel fits into the genre of lawyer-on-the-run. No one really thinks Izzy has done anything wrong, but with her client dead and her fiancé missing with thirty million dollars of her client’s money, she’s under suspicion.

Life goes from perfect if a bit suffocating, to completely changed at the drop of a hat. She’d been her firm’s golden girl, one who, even though only an associate, was a high-earner with a major client. Little does she know that there is more to the story of why she has that client to begin with…

I enjoyed the book, though I was struck at the end by the violent heroine syndrome. Why are novel heroines hitting people these days? Maybe they always did and I didn’t notice it until recently, but if we want to identify with and by friends with heroines, this doesn’t make me like Izzy.

Other than this quibble, the story is a white finger knuckle read. RED HOT LIES is the first of three Izzy McNeil novels, all out now.

Heather Hiestand