One minute Mia Quinn is in her basement chatting on the phone with a colleague at the prosecutor’s office. The next minute there is a gunshot over the line and Mia must listen in horror as her friend Colleen bleeds to death.
As a new widow with a pile of debt, a troubled teenage son, and a four-year-old who wkaes up screaming at night, she needs more time with her family, not les – and working Colleen’s case will be quite demanding. Besides, she already has her hands full with a horrific case of bullying. But Colleen was her friend and she needs to keep her job. So she reluctantly teams up with detective Charlie Carlson to investigate Colleen’s death. But the deeper they dig the more complications unfold- even the unsettling possibility that someone may be coming after her.
Lis Wiehl is one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers and highly regarded commentators. Currently, she is the legal analyst and reporter on the Fox News Channel and Bill O’Reilly’s sparring partner in the weekly “Is It Legal?” segment on The O’Reilly Factor. Prior to that she was O’Reilly’s co-host on the nationally syndicated show The Radio Factor. She is also a Professor of Law at New York Law School. Her column “Lis on Law” appears weekly on FoxNews.com.
Prior to joining Fox News Channel in New York City, Wiehl served as a legal analyst and reporter for NBC News and NPR’s All Things Considered. Before that, Wiehl served as a Federal Prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s office.
Wiehl earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and her Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Queensland.
Wiehl is also the author of The 51% Minority, which won the 2008 award for Books for a Better Life in the motivational category, and Winning Every Time.
She lives with her husband and two children in New York.
About April Henry:
I write mysteries and thrillers. I live in Portland, Oregon with my family.
When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He took it to lunch and showed it to the editor of an international children’s magazine – and she asked to publish the story! (For no money, which might have been a warning about how hard it is to make a living writing.)
My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I’m very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written 13 novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have gotten starred reviews, been picked for Booksense, translated into four languages, been named to state reading lists, and short-listed for the Oregon Book Award. And Face of Betrayal, which I co-wrote with Lis Wiehl, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks.
I also review literary fiction, YA literature, and mysteries and thrillers for the Oregonian, and have written articles for both The Writer and Writers Digest.
In 2012, look for two books: The Night She Disappeared, a teen thriller, and Eyes of Justice, co-written with Lis Wiehl.
My Impressions:
I started listening to audiobooks while walking a few months ago. I have found it keeps me motivated to get out and walk, especially since it has turned hot here in the Deep South. I usually pick books that are quick reads in their book form and the suspense genre generally fits that bill. This past week I was entertained with Lis Wiehl and April Henry’s latest legal suspense novel, A Matter of Trust. I found the quick pace of the book perfect for my walking needs.
Mia Quinn is a widowed mother of two children trying to balance the demands of her job as a Seattle prosecutor and her new status as single mother. Struggling with the financial mess her husband left her, the night terrors that seize her 5 year old daughter and the sullen teenager that seems to have replaced her son, Mia is already exhausted physically and emotionally when she is assigned to help solve the murder of her best friend and co-worker, Colleen. Mia is also determined to find justice for a young man bullied into suicide. On her website, Wiehl states that Mia Quinn is inspired by her own life as a full-time legal professional and single mother.
I found A Matter of Trust to be an intriguing novel full of the kind of puzzling leads and clues that keep a reader wondering and guessing. I had my suspicions as to the killer, but didn’t really know until the murderer exposed himself. I liked the characters of Mia and Charlie Carlson, the lead detective on Colleen’s case — believable and interesting — and look forward to more books in this series. The faith message in A Matter of Trust is secondary, yet important to the development of the characters. I believe it will play a continued role in later books.
So if you like a suspense/mystery involving the justice system, you will want to pick up A Matter of Trust in any of its versions.
Recommended.
(I purchased this book in its audiobook form from Audible. The opinions expressed are mine alone.)
To purchase a copy of A Matter of Trust, click on the image below.
Tags: April Henry, legal suspense fiction, Lis Wiehl
When Jared Neaton grew tired of the shady ethics of his big law firm and left to go out on his own, he never expected the wheels to fly off so quickly. One big case collapsing on him has pushed him to the brink and it’s all he can do to scrape by. He can’t risk another bad loss.
Todd M. Johnson has practiced as an attorney for over 30 years, specializing as a trial lawyer. Todd’s career experience blends with his passion for writing in his novels published through Bethany House.
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