Reprise Review: Eyewitness by @Rebecca_Forster

Genre: Thriller

Description:

“Blame is in the eye of the beholder when Josie faces her toughest challenge yet – one that comes from halfway around the world and forces her to question her faith in justice while threatening the people she loves most.”

This is book #5 in The Witness series featuring attorney Josie Bates.

Author:

Best-selling author Rebecca Forster has had more than twenty books published in her career, most legal thrillers.

For more, visit her website.

Appraisal:

I’ve read three of the four prior books in this series and although having done so isn’t a prerequisite to understand or enjoy this book, when I evaluate why I liked it, one of the biggest reasons are the characters, specifically Josie Bates and her foster child, Hannah. Eyewitness can be read as a standalone and Forster introduces the bare bones of their back story, but I couldn’t help wondering if doing so wouldn’t be missing out on some of what I saw and felt, having made the previous investment and having the deeper understanding of the characters that I had coming in. Josie is an attorney and the books in the series are legal thrillers, yet they have more heart than the typical book in this genre, largely because the legal conflict is usually much more personal for Josie.

In this installment, that personal stake is because her client is Billy Zuni, a friend of Hannah’s who has been a secondary, but far from trivial character in previous books. As Josie digs, she discovers that much of what she thought she knew about Billy wasn’t quite reality. This is also unlike a typical legal thriller because of the way it weaves elements of a foreign culture and how that can influence the life of US immigrants into the story. I highly recommend this book for fans of legal thrillers. Even more, I’d recommend backtracking to the first of the series and reading them all.

Buy now from:   Kindle US      Kindle UK      Paperback

FYI:

Although the fifth book in the series, this can be read as a standalone.

Added for Reprise Review: Before Her Eyes was the winner in the Thriller category for 2014 Readers' Choice Awards at BigAl’s Books and Pals. Original review ran April 17, 2013.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words

Rating: ***** Five stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Reprise Review: Before Her Eyes by @Rebecca_Forster

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Description:

“In a remote mountain community, the execution of a grocer and the abduction of a world-renowned model leave the local sheriff searching for a connection, two killers and a woman who is running for her life.”

Author:

“Rebecca Forster is the USA Today bestselling author of Keeping Counsel. She has written in many genres but her legal thrillers have been called, 'Perfect. Impossible to put down,' by the CBS legal correspondent

She holds a BA from Loyola University, Chicago and an MBA from Loyola University, Los Angeles.

Married to a superior court judge and the mother of two sons, she teaches at UCLA writers program, volunteers in classrooms and speaks in many venues around the country.”

For more, visit Forster’s website.

Appraisal:

I’ve read several of Rebecca Forster’s legal thrillers and loved them all. Before Her Eyes was a change of pace from those; still a thriller, but moved out of the courtroom into the cold, cruel outside world and with a bit of mystery thrown in the mix. The book has two main story lines that are happening concurrently.

The first is what is happening with the sheriff, who is investigating a murder and what appears to be the kidnapping of a “world-renowned model.” The sheriff has a history with the victim and issues of his own that present a struggle and plenty of conflict, both internal and external. He and many of the characters he interacts with are complex, which makes the plot of the story both more unpredictable and more satisfying.

The second story line is what is happening with the missing model. While the first storyline is more of a mystery/police procedural, the second storyline is pure thriller. In neither can you assume that everything is as it seems as both have a twist that leave assumptions made early in the story torn to shreds.

Did I mention that I loved this book?

Buy now from:    Kindle US     Kindle UK    Paperback

FYI:

A small amount of adult language and situations.

Added for Reprise Review: Before Her Eyes was the winner in the Mystery category for 2013 Readers' Choice Awards at BigAl’s Books and Pals.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of typos/proofing misses. The most common was a missing “ed” ending such as “… an abandon house on the left,” which should be abandoned.

A formatting issue with spaces missing before sentences starting with quote marks. My version was obtained from Smashwords. This may not be an issue for other retailers and didn’t create problems in my reading enjoyment.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words