Moral Defense (Samantha Brinkman Book 2) --by Marcia Clark

Fiction / Legal Thriller

428 pages / 3548 KB

5 Stars

This was a two-sit read. I would have been a one-sit read, but I started it too late in the day. I read fiction for enjoyment and escape. Period. If I'm thrown out of a story too often (for any reason) I don't finish it. Ms. Clark has never thrown me out of her stories. Some of her characters/plots are a bit close, but nothing serious.

It might help to read them both in order and if possible relatively close together so one doesn't get confused with characters of an earlier book re-appear in the current one. 

If you enjoyed the early The Closer tv show with Kyra Sedgwick, I think you will really enjoy Samantha Brinkman. Both women have that same attitude that tells them rules are to be followed at all times unless they get in the way of justice.

An adopted teenager, Cassie, is accused of killing her brother and parents. Come to find out, she was sexually abused first by her brother who was a bully, then by her father, and when she told her mother, her mother didn't believe her. Her mother kept telling her how lucky she was to have a family like theirs. Really?

Samantha is trying to save the girl's life, and then discovers there was an adult there the night of the murders. Cassie doesn't want to admit it, but she's pretty messed up. And Sam needs to get information to the cops without breaking confidentiality. And being the armchair sleuth I'm not, I was pretty sure I had it figured out--until I didn't.

Books (and one story) by Marcia Clark I've read and reviewed:

Guilt by Degrees, http://lenoragood.blogspot.com/2013/03/guilty-pleasure-by-degrees.html

Guilt by Association, http://lenoragood.blogspot.com/2013/04/guilt-by-association.html

If I'm Dead, http://lenoragood.blogspot.com/2013/04/if-im-dead.html

Blood Defense, http://lenoragood.blogspot.com/2020/03/blood-defense-samantha-brinkman-book-1.html