Customer Reviews

Angel's Advocate (A Beaufort & Company Mystery)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How do the dead get justice? Do they contact a lawyer? In Mary Stanton's latest release, Angel's Advocate, we get a paranormal glance at the funny, and sometimes dangerous, side of lawyering for the Celestial courts.

When a 17-year-old girl decides to mug a Girl Scout selling cookies, the old Savannah family network kicks in. A young lawyer by the name of Briana Beaufort, Bree for short, is coerced by her aunt to take on the case as a family favor. Through twists and turns in the "Cookie Mugger" case, Bree gets tangled in a web wherein she finds herself with the real client--the teen girl's dead father who may have been falsely condemned to one of the lowest planes of Hell.

Working with Angels as your backup should be a walk in the park, but it's more like a walk in the cemetery for Bree, as she thinks to herself: "Well, let's see. In the past twenty-four hours, I've retained another dead soul as a client, dealt with a kid so screwed up she torments dogs, and discovered that yep, I'm being followed by a pair of corpses who've jumped through the barricades between this world and the next so they can take me on a permanent, highly unpleasant tropical vacation."

I giggled out loud as I met some of the quirky characters and shuddered at some of the spooky scenes, so it's easy to get involved in this book. I did get a little tired of hearing so many people tell the heroine how tired and unwell she looks, but the upsets in the plot kept me intrigued through to a surprising end. This new twist on mystery is sure to be a fun series to follow.

by Rhonda Esakov
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Angel's Advocate is a welcome second Beaufort and Company paranormal cozy from Mary Stanton. Taking up where Defending Angels left off, Brianna Winston-Beaufort, attorney at law is working on a new case. Stanton deftly brings readers up to date in this excellent stand-alone story.

Bree returns for her sophomore case in beautiful Savannah, the most haunted city in the world. Still awaiting renovations to her main practice, Bree and her staff have settled in at their temporary office adjacent to the historic all-murderers cemetery.

A seventeen-year-old high school cheerleader stole $165.26 from a Girl Scout selling cookies in a mall parking lot. In plain site, Lindsay pulled up to the front of the mall, got out of the car, pushed the young girl, and grabbed the shoebox of money, taking off with her girlfriends in her daddy's Hummer. Unfortunately, a quick thinking kid in the parking lot filmed the whole scene on his cell phone and the dirty deed was soon all over the news.

Surprising everyone, including herself, Bree takes the case as a favor to her Aunt Cissy. Not only did the cheerleader attack the much younger Girl Scout in broad daylight, Bree soon discovers Lindsay is a member of the Probert Chandler family of Marlowe drugstore fame. With her beloved rescued dog Sasha by her side, Bree attempts to find a way to help the wayward teen.

In the meantime, her loyal staff, consisting of Ron and Petru, and Livinia, her landlady, uses their own special otherworldly skills to help Bree as only they can. Also making a return appearance is the hunky Lieutenant Sam Hunter.

Mary Stanton has delivered a smash hit as the endearing series continues to entertain. Her quirky cast of characters maintain an engaging realism certain to satisfy the most avid mystery lover.

Angel's Advocate (A Beaufort & Company Mystery)

I bought this second in the series the day it was released, as I couldn't wait to get to it! I was a bit disappointed, as this book didn't have the same magic as the first. I don't think it would stand alone very well; the author seemed to gloss over so much of the ghostly happenings that occurred around Bree in the first novel that the few occurances that were in this book would be confusing. I also felt let down by the scant interaction with the characters working with Bree in the first novel. Maybe I expected too much, but I am willing to hold out for the third in the hopes that it will bring back the spark that the first one had with these brilliant supernatural beings that have walked (flown?)into Bree's life. This one reads more like a mystery with the supernatural thrown in quickly.

I still recommend this book to keep with the flow...

She had no idea what she let herself in for when she agreed to take over the legal practice of her late uncle's Beaufort & Company. The practice located at 66 Angelus St in Savannah cannot be found by mortals; only angels and sprits can enter; except for Brianna Winston-Beaufort as she is the firm's only lawyer and sole mortal. Her clients are spirits appealing their sentencing in Celestial Court as unfair. She has an angel dog Sasha as her companion and guard.

Her latest case starts in the mortal realm which gives her hope she might bring in some real money. Seventeen year old Lindsay Chandler stole $165 from an eight year old selling Girl Scout cookies. Bree goes out to the Chandler estate to meet her client. A few months ago Lindsay's father died in a car accident, but when Bree sits in his chair, he claims he was murdered and wants her to represent him in Celestial Court. Bree has a hunch that the father and daughters cases are related to the robberies of pseudophedrine occurring in Chandler's warehouse. She soon finds herself protected by angelic guard dogs as the powers that be believe the lawyer to the afterlife is in mortal danger.

Once again DEFENDING ANGELS, Bree stars in an exciting paranormal legal thriller anchored by a strong investigation and by things that go bump in the night that are really there; the audience will need to sleep with a light on. The whodunit is clever so that readers cannot easily connect the dots as Mary Stanton provides an off-beat quirky mystery filled with eccentric characters; on earth and beyond.

Harriet Klausner

The only clients who can find Brianna "Bree" Winston-Beaufort's law office at 66 Angelus, Savannah, Georgia, are the dead ones. When Bree's Aunt Cissy wants to get her niece a "live one," she has to arrange a meeting in her own home. A member of her bridge club, the widow of a drugstore millionaire who died in a one-car accident less than four months earlier, has a teenage daughter who has suddenly taken it into her head to wrest a young Girl Scout's cookie money from her very hands. At first Bree thinks it's just a case of a spoiled rich kid doing what comes naturally. But then she hears from the deceased father, who claims he "didn't die in the car" and drops cryptic hints about both his company and his daughter. It also seems that he may have been unjustly condemned to Hell--which is the main reason he's contacted Bree. Then, just to make life interesting, there's what seems to be an ongoing feud between her secretary and her paralegal (both of whom are in fact angels in mortal guise) and the sudden and very unhealthy interest of the long-dead (or are they?) Josiah and Olivia Pendergast in Bree, which leads to the appearance of a couple more not-exactly-earthly characters (two huge dogs named Milles and Belli) in her life. With equal shares of humor, mystery, and chilling terror, the second volume in the Beaufort & Co. series definitely upholds the promise of the first.

I was hoping these would get better, they did not. I feel there were many opportunities for a better story that were missed.

Mary Stanton makes writing seem easy in her newest installment to the Beaufort & Company Mystery Series with "Angel's Advocate". In this fast-paced, amusing tale Brianna "Bree" Beaufort-Winston and her motley crew continue to seek justice for the recently departed -- unfortunately, that doesn't pay the bills. When Bree and her team take on the case of a teenage troublemaker, Stanton's strong character development goes into overdrive.

Before reading the 2nd in the series, I met Bree and company in Defending Angels, which was a blast. There was not nearly as much "discovery" in this book, hence 4/5 * rather than 5 *. Mary Stanton and her characters, however, are solid performers, but Bree's helping angels (the landlady, her paralegal, and secretary) don't have much "screen" time in this book, which is disappointing since they are so interesting. The mysterious disappearing detective has only one very minor appearance. We do meet two new helpers in the form of two very massive guardian dogs whom I like a lot. The first book broke a lot of ground; this one did not. The "non-breaking" of new ground was not as satisfying as the first book. Mary does tease with a tiny look into the celestial court system which has yet to really be revealed. We get to meet prosecuting demons from "the other side" and that WAS entertaining. Bree doesn't even have a blowout in this story. This was sort of padding and mostly a crime series rather than having much interesting paranormal activity. I do look forward to the next one though. I hope Mary can bring it back on track and increase the spiritual content in the next one. There's just too many crime novel writers out there, and Mary had a unique niche.

66 Angelus is the home of Georgia's only exclusive cemetery; for murders only. The only human inhabitant of this dread place is Brianna Winston-Beaufort, a young attorney who inherited a very unorthodox practice from her Uncle.

She defends dead people.

Live ones, too, if the cases intertwine. In this story, Bree's got a father and daughter team. Seventeen-year-old Lindsey was caught on videotape stealing money from a Girl Scout and driving away in her Daddy's Hummer. Her recently deceased father, Probert Chandler, is condemned to the 9th circle of hell and seeking appeal because he didn't commit suicide--he claims he was murdered.

Bree and her angelic assistants are literally going to have to cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war to solve this complicated case involving drugs, duplicity and enough twists to keep you reading past your bedtime.

"Angel's Advocate" is stronger than a cosy mystery, but not harsh enough that it would truly disturb readers who are uncomfortable with books that are too 'real'. The characters are interesting and engaging and the world is well-built and definitely worthy of another visit from this reader.

Rebecca Kyle, July 2009

I seldom read paranormals but having met the author, who is very engaging in person, I thought I would give this one a try. I'm glad I did; it's an engrossing read with some fun and original characters. I was able to set aside my usual disbelief and get with the paranormal program. This might be a good place to start if, like me, you are not too familiar with the genre.