REVIEW for Plea of Insanity

A big thank you goes out to Georgina at Perseus Books for sending me this great legal thriller.

TITLE: Plea of Insanity

AUTHOR: Jilliane Hoffman

GENRE: Legal Thriller

RATING; 4 Stars

I use to be a big fan of legal thrillers, but found myself "getting off them" because the quality of many of them was not there anymore. However, lately, I am happy to report that some of the best authors managed to keep re-surfacing with wonderful books and storylines despite my being so cranky about getting good legal thrillers.

Plea of Insanity definitely falls right into the category of "great legal thrillers".

First off, I love reading about strong, leading female characters and Hoffman has definitely created one in the likes of Julia Vacanti. She is a tad on the young side (only 28) and I like my heroines to be a little older, but no matter, Hoffman has made sure that her character, while young, has lived a lifetime in her young life.

Indeed, Vacanti is a Miami Assistant States attorney, but in no way was she born with the proverbial "silver spoon" in her mouth. Actually, she has had enough drama in her own personal life - in the likes of her brother who was convicted of stabbing their parents when he was only 13. So, Julia has life experience and uses this to prosecute her cases in court. I loved this main character very much and, for me, she added alot to the book.

Vacanti finds herself having to prosecute the case of David Marquette who is a "an all around good guy", a doctor who is accused of murdering his family. The defense are arguing insanity but Vacanti isn't buying it and sets out to get as much information as she can in order to prosecute him to the full extent of the law.

I will not go into too much detail about this particular aspect of the book as I do not want to give anything away - but let me just say that I was blown away by how the author manages to put Vacanti squarely in between her new case and her old life.

There are many twists and turns in this page turner an I could not put it down once I started reading it. I love this type of book - "just one more page" turns into "3 chapters later".

The only thing that did not work as well for me is the romance that Julia is living in this book. I kind of groaned when we learn, early on, who she is sleeping with. It felt to me as though that had been done before and I never found myself getting particularly invested in the romance, although I do see the need for it, in some ways, for the progression of the book.

Overall though, I can't wait for a (hopefully) sequel to this book and I can't wait to find out what happens to Julia.