Customer Reviews

Intent To Harm: A Kali O'Brien Novel of Legal Suspense

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a reader of Jonnie Jacobs' Kali books from the beginning, I really looked forward to Intent to Harm, and it lived up to my expectations. The characters were superbly realized--the hit man was so human, so understandable, but no less evil. The variouis viewpoints really engaged me.The plot kept me guessing until
the end. And the relationship between Bryce and Kali was just just right. I love where it ended and can't wait for the next one.

This has to be the lamest book I've read in a very long time. I thought the premise sounded great, but it was put into an empty story. I wanted to care about the characters, but they had little depth. I almost stopped reading it all together when at least some action started up, but that only led to a very dissapointing ending. There was no real workup to a climax. It got to a certian point of the story when it just threw all the characters in the same room and ended it. Maybe Jonnie Jacobs was getting bored with it too and wanted to get it over with. Do yourself a favor....skip this one.

Gotta hand it to writer Jonnie Jacobs. Her 5th novel in the Kali O'Brien series, "Cold Justice", was such a winner, I went back in time and read the first four. In this 6th outing, Kali's still running her own small legal firm in San Francisco, but much of the action takes place around Lake Tahoe, where Kali has a mysterious new client, and in Las Vegas. (Some minor plot details, below, no big spoilers!)

The plot opens with a bang as Kali never gets to find out what her new client, Betty Arnold, needed her to do, and why she was maintaining such secrecy. Kali and Betty become targets at their meeting place, and Betty is killed. Over time, Kali's vague memories of the shooting and Betty's words lead her to continue to probe what her client was hiding, and why she was a target. O'Brien shows the mettle and instincts we've seen her develop over the series to chase down people from Betty's past, and to follow it home, despite the danger that might await her.

An active second subplot that seems well-written and true to life involves sheriff's deputy Kim Wong, who is assigned to the case, helps to wrap up a plausible suspect, and then follows her own instincts (with help from Kali), to undermine the "false case" and focus on the real killer. Jacobs goes out of her way to present a fair synopsis of how the police feel pressured to lock down a case for trial, even though loose ends are bothersome. If Jacobs' interest in O'Brien is waning, she's certainly set an interesting new character to follow in Deputy Wong, who feels a fish out of water as the highest ranking woman in the department, a transfer from LA and an outsider..."not only was there a glass ceiling, but glass walls, too"....let's hope Kim Wong returns to Jacob's dance card in the future.

By page 130, you are wondering how a contract kill "arranger", Sid Mertz, and a Las Vegas waitress, Irene Thompson, will tie in to the plot. Jacobs admits excerpts from both their storylines, and although you are making a connection, your suspicions don't start to crystallize until around that time. The rest of the book is a fast-paced roller coaster, with more surprising twists at the end.

Bryce, the SFPD offier that Kali became interested in, in "Cold Justice" is back, and the relationship between the two of them stays interesting...Kali "doubted she'd affected his heart so much as assaulted his ego". Jacobs gives us the right mix of professional and personal, and the right stuff with her heroine, Kali O'Brien.

There's intensity in the plot of "Intent to Harm", and you'll want to get to the bottom of it, as soon as possible.

Highly recommended....best if you've read the books in series, though.

Whilst this book started off at a pretty fast pace and was pretty interesting in the first couple of chapters the quality died off fast once Betty was killed and O'Brien injured. The rest of the book has the rather boring character O'Brien obsessed with trying to figure out what her dead client wanted. Meanwhile the injured hit man who sent the premature killing hit man that bungled the job wants to know just how much O'Brien knows. Sounds interesting from the description you say, you'd think that wouldn't you and I was one of you but in reality you'll struggle to stick with the boring storyline to the end of the book.

This is the best yet in a great series. I've always like Kali, and Jacobs does a great job with secondary characters too. There are several storylines, each with its own driving mystery, and it's only as we get further into the story that we see how they are connected. There's mystery, intrique, suspense and humor. Highly recommended.

Kali O' Brien has a rather intriguing new client: a mysterious woman who will not say who she is or why she wants to hire Kali, and who insists that they meet for the first time at a remote park near Lake Tahoe (rather than at Kali offices in San Francisco) in order to decide whether or not she will hire Kali. But Kali interests are engaged, and she agrees to meet her potential new client at the park. Unfortunately, almost as soon as Kali makes contact with the woman, and before the woman can reveal who she is and why she wants to retain Kali, both Kali and the woman are attacked -- the woman dies, and Kali herself suffers a rather serious gun shot wound to her shoulder.

From the police investigation of the shooting, Kali learns that her potential client was Betty Arnold, a quiet middle-aged woman who seems to have led an uneventful and blameless life. And when the police quickly arrest a young Hispanic male, known for his quick temper, and who had apparently had a traffic altercation with Betty earlier that day, many are convinced that shooter has been apprehended. But Kali is not so sure -- esp since the alleged shooter just happens to be someone Kali's cousin knows (and somone Kali's cousin is convinced couldn't have committed the crime). Determined to discover why Betty was murdered, Kali starts digging into Betty's background, and finds herself in the middle of a decade's old murder/disapperance case, and entangled with a ruthless murderer who's determined to stop Kali at any cost...

Personally speaking, I rather enjoyed this latest Kali O' Brien mystery novel in spite of the few problems I had with the book. For example, there is an element of coincidence that almost beggared belief (I won't go into this anymore so as not to venture into the realm of plot spoilers); and I did find it rather difficult to take the character of the murderer seriously -- he seemed almost like a caricature of what a cold blooded hired murderer would be like. However, Jonnie Jacobs's crisp narrative style, and the brisk rate at which she allowed the plot to unfold, together with her strong female character portrayals, made "Intent to Harm" quite the engaging page turner, and a rather fast and compelling read. All in all, the perfect relaxing weekend read.

INTENT TO HARM (Suspense-Kali O'Brien-California/Nevada-Cont) - G

Jacobs, Jonnie - 6th in series

Kensington Books, 2003, US Hardcover - ISBN: 1575668297

First Sentence: The blue Toyota turned off Highway 89 along the western shore of Lake Tahoe and into Ponderosa Pines Park.

Attorney Kali O'Brien is asked to meet a new client, Betty, in a park by Lake Tahoe. Although the request is unusual, Kali agrees and ends up with a dead client and a gunshot wound in her shoulder. Investigating Betty's death leads Kali to another case of a woman thought to be murdered eight years previous, but still alive and still with someone trying to rectify that.

This was not my favorite Kali O'Brien story. Jacobs does do a credible job of creating and building suspense, maintaining several story threads and tying them all neatly up at the end. Her characters are well done, well developed and interesting.

However, the story felt long and overly involved, but it was the overwhelming coincidence that caused my rating to drop.

This is the sixth book in a series of Kali O'Brien book's.

The heroine Kali, an attorney, has a new mysterious client who get's killed before she find's out why Kali was contacted in the first place. Kali learns that the killing is connected to a disappearance that took place year's earlier. Fast paced but with a disappointing ending.

I've just discovered this author and will certainly go search out other books in the series. The characters were well developed (which is not always the case in this genre) and the story fast paced but believable. There are several viewpoint stories that all converge once we are into the the story and I thought it worked very well. I found all three of the women characters appealing in their own right. Highly recommended.

In the next installation of the Kali O'Brien series, Intent to Harm by Jonnie Jacobs, Kali O'Brien is sent a retainer for five thousand dollars and only given the name "Betty." "Betty", a new client, insists that their first meeting be in an isolated park in Lake Tahoe-- insisting that Kali come alone. A bit leery, Kali agrees but is unable to find out what Betty wants. Shots ring out hitting both women- Kali survives but Betty dies only having said, "have faith." Kali soon learns that finding out who shot her, killed Betty, and why Betty called her in the first place is going to be much more complicated than sharing with local police what she remembered.

This mystery moves at a deliberate and methodical pace exposing clues in this case as well as an eight-year-old case involving the disappearance and assumed death of Betty's niece Faith. Kali must use a great deal of intuition and lawyer reasoning to put the clues together. With the main focus being from the perspective of a lawyer the story does not lend itself to a lot of action and excitement. It definitely is a search and discovery process. Kali runs back and forth from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe and even takes a trip to Las Vegas. This approach stays true to what this reader would imagine would be the situations and limitations of lawyers.

Ms. Jacobs is very clever in the way the clues are revealed and does a wonderful job of weaving together the sub-plots-local police investigation, Bay area investigations, and the killer's search to complete their job-into the body of the main story. However the revelation of the killer and motives were anticlimactic and predictable for this reader. It was also clear that in order to really get into Kali's character, reading the other books in the Kali O'Brien series would be helpful. This is my first book by Ms. Jacobs, but I can honestly say not my last.

Kotanya
APOOO BookClub