Customer Reviews

Conflict of Interest

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

 

 

Legal thrillers often top bestseller lists due in large part to the can't-put-down yarns spun by popular author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. Here's a can't-stop-listening-to reading of Rosenberg's seventh page-turner by gifted voice artist Laural Merlington. She doesn't miss a cue or a clue in her rendering of this suspense filled law and order tale.

Joanne Kulman has enough problems - she's about to divorce her jailed husband and her two teenage offspring are, well, teenagers. Her job as a prosecutor in California's Ventura County has always presented challenges, but this is the biggest of them all. When a convenience store is robbed some young lawbreakers are soon arrested. They're identified by witnesses, and will stand trial.

However, Ian, one of the young men is developmentally disturbed, and it soon becomes clear to Joanne that the other boys tricked him into being a part of the robbery. Then, quite suddenly, Ian disappears. Something else is going on besides a plain vanilla heist.

She is obligated to try the case, and she is attracted to Ian's good looking lawyer. Conflicts abound in "Conflict Of Interest."

- Gail Cooke

Joanne Kuhlman, an assistant district attorney in Ventura County, California, is not having an easy time of it personally or professionally. Two years ago her husband became so involved in gambling that he stood to lose everything they jointly owned. He ran, taking their two children with him and giving them all different IDs so they couldn't easily be traced. It took a private detective two years to find them and return the children to Joanne

While the threesome struggle to bring a bit of normalcy into their lives following the trauma, Joanne is assigned a robbery case that led to the arrest of three defendants. Since none of them have a violent background they are released on bail. One of the defendants Ian Decker is mentally disabled and a loose cannon. After he vanishes, everyone including Joanne thinks that the co-defendants, brothers who also dropped out of site, killed him. A shattered Joanna takes step beyond that required by law to see that Ian receives justice.

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg does an astonishingly keen, but believable job of misdirecting the audience on several different levels. CONFLICT OF INTEREST features a protagonist who is strong enough to hold herself together during the worst of times yet remain honest and true to her values when seeking justice in her personal and professional endeavors. This latest Rosenberg work deserves best selling status, as legal thriller fans will relish every delightful reading moment.

Harriet Klausner

In the Acknowledgements section of this book, the author states: "I would like to express my gratitude to the many people, angels, family members, doctors and heaven-sent muses for providing me with the strength and inspiration to tell this particular story...The underlying issue in this novel -- the plight of the mentally disabled within the criminal justice system -- seemed to be of such great significance that the majority of this book was written in tremendous pain. I am almost now completely recovered, and eager to begin my next project."

CONFLICT OF INTEREST is, at its core, the story of Ian Decker a mentally challenged man who becomes involved in the California judicial system, with disastrous results.

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg knows her way around a courtroom and her main character, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Kulhman, is one tough cookie. Joanne has survived losing her children for two years after her ex-husband kidnapped them and went on the lam. Now reunited with the children, Leah and Mike, Joanne is trying to put the pieces of her life back together.

She is assigned the case against Ian and his two running buddies, but she sees something in the young man's eyes that connects with her softer side and she winds up walking a very fine line between her job as an ADA and her desire to get to the bottom of Ian's disappearance.

There are several sub-plots and a very interesting "private investigator" named Eli, but this book is ultimately the story of a young man's travails and triumphs despite his shortcomings.

Enjoy!

I always look forward to reading Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's new books (I've read them all) because I know I'm going to enjoy it. But I can honestly say I was disappointed this time. For some reason the book didn't keep me thinking about the story line. So much so I would want to get back to reading as soon as possible. Usually her books are pages turners and I enjoy the characters in the story. Didn't work for me this time though. This was my first disappiontment, but I still like forward to her next book.

"Conflict of Interest" is the latest novel by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, the police officer turned successful novelist. I was expecting a workmanlike story that would hold my interest for an afternoon. Instead, I found this novel to be so poorly put together and so garbled that all I got for my trouble was a splitting headache.

The heroine of "Conflict of Interest" is Joanne Kuhlman, an Assistant District Attorney in California. Her vicious ex-husband, Doug, kidnapped and kept their children for two years, denying them any access to their mother. In fact, he convinced the children that their mother no longer wanted them. Doug was eventually caught and the children went back to their relieved mother. Doug is now in jail awaiting trial for a host of crimes, including embezzlement. Joanne's fifteen-year-old daughter, Leah, has developed into a hostile and angry teenager. To add to her woes, Joanne's bank account was wiped out when she hired a private investigator to find her kids.

The case at the center of the novel revolves around two brothers named Gary and Tom Rubinsky, who spend their time drinking and smoking pot. They take advantage of an unfortunate soul named Ian Decker, a developmentally disabled young man who is trying to live a decent life. The Rubinsky brothers drag Ian along on a robbery and he and the two brothers are arrested. Joanne becomes involved in the case, along with Arnold Dreiser, an attorney who is related to Ian.

Rosenberg says in her afterword that she is trying to make a statement about "the plight of the mentally disabled within the criminal justice system." I am sure that this is a laudable goal, but Rosenberg's muddled book does not make any coherent statement about the mentally disabled and the law. Her characters are all one-dimensional and the dialogue is labored. Worst of all, the plot veers off in a host of directions, including story lines about a former CIA agent on the run, Ian's saintly mother, and a budding romance for Joanne. It's all too convoluted and the various plot lines never add up to a coherent whole.

Here is an example of some very bad writing, in which Rosenberg is trying to describe a romantic encounter: "Every nerve ending in her body sprang to life. Her head fell back as she gasped, feeling as if a river had rushed into her. Time was suspended. Her heartbeats seemed miles apart. She could count the beats, feel the air rushing in and out of her mouth." Although such purple prose does not recur on every page, the writing in "Conflict of Interest" as a whole is not very much better than this unfortunate passage. I do not recommend "Conflict of Interest." It is an unfocused and poorly written novel.

This book, like all of the books I have read by Nancy Taylor Rosenburg, is awesome. I couldn't put it down! She has a way of making a leisurely activity into a full-time job. Kudos to the author.

Assistant District Attorney Joanne Kuhlman has recovered her children from the years they spent with their kidnapping father, but all is not well in her life. Her daughter, Leah, is acting out, and something is wrong with the case she has been assigned to prosecute. When attractive defense attorney Arnold Dreiser asks her to give his client--mildly retarded Ian Drecker--special attention, Kuhlman's reaction is to run both from his proposition and from the sexual feelings she has denied for so long.

Drecker, along with brothers Tom and Gary Rubinsky, are accused of holding up a convenience store. It soon becomes obvious that the brothers are taking advantage of Decker, using him for transportation, lodging, and cash. Yet can Kuhlman offer any special consideration to him, even if he is partially a victim? Before long, the mystery deepens from a simple holdup to murder--and Kuhlman is forced to confront her fears.

Author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg explores the challenges Kuhlman faces in recovering her life after the tragedy of her husband's desertion and kidnapping of their children. Kuhlman is afraid to trust and finds it difficult to set appropriate boundaries for her children. Fortunately for her, she is blessed with a powerful ex-CIA detective Eli Connors, who feels that he owes her. With help from Connors, Dreiser, and Drecker's mother, the whole truth emerges.

Although CONFLICT OF INTEREST is an interesting story, it is weakened by Kulhman's rather passive role in the story. As protagonist, she relies to heavily on others to do the work. It's hard for the reader to get behind a character who spends her time worrying about her children and then sending out her minions to solve the crime. Fortunately, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's writing is strong enough to pull this off but the reader may be left with the feeling that the novel could have been so much stronger.

Rosenberg shows us how the mentally disabled can become lost in our cynical and overworked justice system. In this novel, ADA Joanne Kuhlman finds herself sympathetic to one of her trial defendant after reading background information about him. Pair that with his attorney's and his mother's plea and you have an unique thriller.
Rosenberg does a job of building the drama up to the last pages. Her background in the court system helped render an authenticity to her story.

There's not just one conflict of interest in this legal drama, but several, as families and colleagues of the prosecuting protagonist sort out their lives while sorting out a complex couple of murders. Families are torn, and healing takes place in unexpected ways. Teens rebel, then rather quickly find their center of maturity. Lawyers on opposite sides of a case find an unlikely romance, and a detective's mysterious background makes him a valuable asset in solving other mysteries. An excellent light read, with enough character development to maintain interest, as well as the requisite pleasant surprises at the ending.

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg is one of the recognized big shots in the legal thriller genre, a name that stands right alongside Lisa Scottoline or Perri O'Shaughnessy as top women legal thriller authors. Her debut work Mitigating Circumstances & the subsequent Interest of Justice were marvelous reads, & I was looking somewhat on those lines when I started Conflict of Interest. However, it's not on par with the author's other works.

Joanne Kuhlman, a feisty & dedicated District Attorney is assigned the task of bringing to book three defendants accused of robbery, Tom & Gary Rubinsky & the developmentally disabled, Ian Decker. Decker's attorney Arnold Dreiser, & his mother insist that Ian was a victim of exploitation by the Rubinsky brothers, & that he did not know that he was committing a crime. Kuhlman is sympathetic towards Decker but cannot bring herself to believe that he should be absolved from liability. A couple of days later Decker disappears & it is feared that he might have been done away with by the Rubinsky brothers. A mysterious telephone call that Decker has been killed prompts Kuhlman to investigate more into the matter & what follows is a suspense-filled adventure where the attorney finds the half-truths & the full truths.

Conflict of Interest, like other Rosenberg works is action- & plot-packed. However, readers looking for legal drama or courtroom action concerning the nature of liability that can be fixed upon a developmentally disabled person are bound to be disappointed, as the work does not delve much into this aspect, though the author acknowledges that the issue is of great significance.

On a side-track, there is the story of Kuhlman's troubles with her former husband, there is also a flashback of the life of Eli Connors, a former CIA Agent who keeps a watch on Joanne from any possible attack from her former husband. However these sub plots & stories scantily help in character building or in plot building in the final scheme of things.

Personally, I feel that an ideal ending for the work should have been a courtroom drama where the issue of the developmentally disabled are brought to light, as John Grisham did with The Chamber when he brought to fore the justifiability of the death penalty; or, the rights & privileges of gays & AIDS patients as Ron Nyswaner did with Philadelphia (yes, the Tom Hanks movie!); & the reader be given the opportunity to delve more into the legal issue & form his own opinion.

The author missed a golden opportunity to deal in the same manner to bring to fore legal issues of the nature of liability of developmentally disabled persons.

As an ordinary thriller the book is engrossing, but for the devotees of Rosenberg novels, Conflict of Interest is a disappointment. The blurb promises a lot, but in the end it's just not up to the Rosenberg standard.