Sunday, February 6, 2011

24 Hour Lottery Ticket / Gayle Tiller

Genre: Suspense / Legal Thriller

Approximate word count: 45-50,000

Availability Kindle: YES           Nook: YES            DTB: YES

Author:

Tiller is a community activist, public relations professional, and former lawyer for senior citizens who lives in San Jose. She has also written two short stories, 24 Hour Nightmare and Santa Gets Outsourced, available for your Kindle or Nook.

Description:

Emma Watkins, a disgraced judge has the winning ticket for the big prize in the lottery, but doesn't want her win made public for personal reasons. She approaches the book's protagonist, struggling attorney Dianne Canton, for help. The twist is the deadline to redeem the ticket is only 24 hours away.

Appraisal:

While the basic premise has potential and the character of Dianne is both likeable and well developed, the story suffers from several flaws. The most significant of these is one of creditability. Would a former judge actually put something like this off until the last minute? Possibly, but I didn't believe it.

I'm no lawyer and the author is. I don't expect a legal thriller to be 100% accurate in regards to actual laws, the working of the courts, and such. However, at times the author seemed to be using her "literary license" to stretch reality a bit too much.

Last, the character of Emma was too unlikeable. While this quality is integral to the story, it was overdone. She started out as an obnoxious ass and was the same at the end. If there is such a word as "over-characterization,” it would apply here. By the end of the book, I was hoping they wouldn't be successful in redeeming the ticket while keeping the winner a secret. My hate for Emma outweighed my wish for Dianne to succeed.

Rating: ** 2 stars

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