Customer Reviews

Keeping Counsel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As an attorney, I've read a lot of legal thrillers, and R.A.Forster's KEEPING COUNSEL ranks with the best. This story moves. From the outset, we are pulled into the moral dilemma faced by Tara Linley, the lawyer who meets her best friend's new lover only to find herself ensnared by this charming man into defending him against criminal prosecution for a horrifying murder. Is he certifiably insane? Or merely a sexy but psychopathic killer who delights in manipulating his power over Tara and her vulnerable friend? This book is full of thrills, both emotional and intellectual. When Tara is pitted against influential friends who pressure her to give her client up, she questions the very foundations on which her life was built. Surely her best friend's safety is more important than some technical vow she took when she was sworn in as a lawyer. But how can she live with herself if she doesn't honor the system she has sworn to uphold? I finished it late last night, so I'm fresh from the excitement of this book. KEEPING COUNSEL dishes out danger, desire, and romance as it zips through this compelling story taken from an actual case. I couldn't put it down. R.A.Forster is going places--and I'm along for the ride.

My husband recommended this book and I couldn't put it down. This is a well paced legal thriller with a villian who stayed with me long after I stopped reading. Throughout the book I couldn't figure out if he was crazy or just evil, but either way he was really creepy. I loved the heroine, Tara, who struggles with her legal ethics as she tries to save her best friend from her evil boyfriend. When Bill, the boyfriend, retains Tara as his lawyer this invokes attorney-client privilege and she's the only one to whom he reveals his true nature. The characters really come to life and for a while I didn't think there was any good way this could end, but Rebecca Forster has a talent for surprises and I loved the way she ended this book. I'm glad I didn't see those ten year old, one star reviews before I read this. This is definitely worth downloading!

If the prologue doesn't suck you in, you shouldn't be reading this genre. This is an incredible psychological/legal thriller that kept me anxiously turning pages late into the night. The title refers to the attorney-client privilege of secrecy and the charming, yet deadly protagonist in Keeping Counsel knows how to use it when he retains his lover's best friend to represent him. The tense interplay between these two characters is reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs where the killer's compelling seductiveness barely conceals his creepy, unstable behavior. Torn between protecting her friend and upholding the law, Tara Linley walks a fine line between what's legal and what's right. Rebecca Forster's vivid descriptions and true-to-life characters jump off the page with incredible authenticity. This is one you do not want to miss.

Another page turner from Rebecca Forster! Tara, Albuquerque attorney, agrees to represent the newly acquired lover of her best friend and learns that he is guilty of a heinous murder. She finds herself caught up in a tangled web of defending her client and her concern for her friend. Unfortunately, she keeps hitting brick walls as she tries to get help for her client and she finds herself questioning the very ethics that she holds dear in her profession.

Not only is this an outstanding plot with believable, well developed characters, but Forster's writing style is absolutely beautiful! She makes the words come alive on the pages and her descriptions paint a vivid scene in your mind! I felt like I knew everyone personally.

Thank goodness for the Kindle or I would have missed this thought provoking book. This one is an outstanding read! Don't miss it!

WOW! Hold on. Let me catch my breath. This author was able to reach down and relay the workings of a freakishly twisted mind to such a degree that it's frightening. I was on the edge of my seat while reading Keeping Counsel. Just when you think the bad guy can't do anything worse, he does. This book is so good you won't be able to put it down. THIS IS A MUST READ.

Rebecca Forester has crafted a wonderful legal thriller that will have you unable to put her book down as you read on to find out what will happen to Tara, a lawyer with a psycho killer named Bill for a client. She is in danger of abusing her status as a lawyer as she strives to protect her best friend Donna from this maniac without betraying the confidence the killer has burdened her with. The action was so intense I couldn't put it down and read right through the weekend to the startling end. Glad I did, but sorry the experience is over. Now I look forward to Rebecca's next novel with great anticipation. Hard to believe anything could top this, but with a talented wordsmith like Rebecca chances are she will.

The jeopardy that the killer puts Tara in provides for non-stop intense edge of your seat thrills and suspense. Not even Tara's boyfriend Ben can protest her from the mind-bending antics of the killer as he tries to intimidate her and threaten her, but Tara is too strong wiled to let him succeed. At the shocking conclusion I found myself wondering if the terror would ever end. You will too. Simply delicious action packed suspense. This one deserves five stars.

Within the past few months, Rebecca Forester has become one of my favorite authors. As I have mentioned in earlier reviews of her work, legal thrillers are not my standard genre, but having read one of Rebecca's earlier books, I was drawn into her unique ability to cast and describe characters. Her entire milieu; house, surroundings, clothes, weather, atmosphere, is all woven together to paint a descriptive scene that few authors can match. And she does it with such a deft hand that you don't stop to think you are reading about the equipment found in the horses stall, you just flow through it and realize it's there.

As to plot, Rebecca's ability to shape the mental attributes of a disturbed person is exceptional. As an alpha male, I just wanted to pick up a gun and kill the guy and stop trying to figure out why and how he did what he did, or what made him tick. Of course as the reader, I knew far more than the characters who were limited by the restraint of the author.

Forster can write. Exceptionally well. To quote a legendary screen character, when it comes to Rebecca Forster books, "I'll be back!"

I flip from aurthor to aurthor, genre to genre, but Ms. Forster has gotten my attention ~ I am buying everying she writes and just want to thank her, if she reads these reviews, for finding her way to writing. Please keep 'em coming...and thanks for keeping your Kindle prices down so we can keep reading your work!

Rebecca Forster has done it again with this suspense filled masterpiece! This book is filled with surprises that keep you guessing and hoping for the ultimate "break in the case"! Who would have thought "keeping counsel" for a client could have such impacts on your own life! I loved this story and the characters come to life before your eyes and stay with you until the end. For anyone that loves courtroom drama and a thrill ride...this is a MUST READ!!

AUTHOR REBECCA FORSTER is pure genius at crafting legal thrillers with intricate plots, real-life characters and scenes you recognize; having been there, or ones that make you want to go there. Having been through Albequerque, New Mexico I felt I have been down the same streets and outside the city limits as Attorney TARA LINLEY.

It is just after New Year's Day. Tara is taking down the Christmas decorations, and settled on celebrating her fortieth Birthday in solitude. Tara Linley is interrupted by her very best friend, Donna Ecold. A forty-something successfull Author of childrens' books appears at her door and very pleased to show off her latest beau, (a much younger) BILL HAMILTON. Before th night draws to a close, BILL HAMILTON makes an appointment to see Tara at her office the following day, he needs a lawyer.

What Hamilton discloses; the brutal crime he has committed, his need for a lawyer to "get him help" is shocking. Out of friendship and concern for Donna, Tarra accepts Hamilton as a client. The harrowing experiences that follow ensnarles Tara's closest friends, the District Attorney who is campaigning for Governor, his wife Charlotte; her high school boyfriend, Physcologist Ben Crawford (confined to a wheel chair as the result of an auto accident in High School). Tara must find a way to serve her client, while maintaining the "Lawyer-Client" privilege . . . at all costs. Her client Hamilton is not making it easy for her to do so. Tara must persevere, KEEPING COUNSEL, at all costs . . . even if it cost's her best friend Donna's life . . . or maybe her own.

This is a real page-turner! Only a couple of typos, but easily figured out. I highly recommend REBECCA FORSTER'S "KEEPING COUNSEL".

I have read "BEYOND MALICE"; "KEEPING COUNSEL", "HOSTILE WITNESS" and "SILENT WITNESS", all by AUTHOR REBECCA FORSTER. I can't wait to see any of her novels appear as a major film or perhaps a TV Movie-of-the-Week. I am a Certified Life Fan of Ms. Forster abd will be reading the rest of her novels as quickly as I can. Thanks AMAZON'S "SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION FOR AUTHORS" customer's forum, created by Author DENNIS BATCHELDER ("SOUL IDENTITY" and "SOUL INTENT") for bringing me to such a brilliant Author.