Customer Reviews

Mistress of Justice

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

 

 

I started out with Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series and have gone back to read his earlier books. Not all of his early books are as enjoyable as his recent offerings. But I was surprised with this one. It sat on my shelf for awhile before I finally got around to reading it. I shouldn't have waited so long. Taylor Lockwood has to find a stolen $25 million promisssary note of Mitchell Reece loses his case and is out of a job. She is a great strong female character, whose amateurish sleuthing is amusing. Finally, just when you think you've figured out who stole the note, you're in for one surprise and then another. This book hints at the great things to come from Jeff Deaver.

This book seems to have been written by Jeffrey Deaver just prior to his full acquisition of the unique style, creativity, pace and humor that marked his later works. The Lincoln Rhyme novels, for example. All of them employ Jeffrey's formidable writing skills, and are tremendously entertaining on many levels. Mistress of Justice falls short of these expectations, however. I got only halfway through it, skimmed the rest, then went right to the ending - which was predictable. Never thought I'd do that with one of Jeffrey's books, and I have read nearly all of them. The problems with this book are many. The pace is very slow. The plot - not very strong. Too many characters are introduced, too quickly. Too much writing space devoted to non-essential details. But there also seems to be a snooty, snobbish tone to the entire book - almost as if Jeffrey had written it to impress his cronies in the lawyering arena of NYC. While I was reading - I failed to find anyone in the story to admire, to cheer for, and more importantly, to identify with. Although some may be fascinated by that particular class-based New York / New England culture of old money, politics and snobbishness, I am not. Yet Jeffrey revelled in laying this all out in a manner that suggested the reader should love and embrace this culture. Fortunately, Jeffrey moved away from this style in his later novels - all of which are marked by rich characters, from life's many diverse walkways. Mistress of Justice reinforced my belief that you cannot hit a home run every time up - and that's fine. And, I am grateful that the mistakes made in this novel are not found in any of Jeffrey's later works. If you are as big a Jeffrey Deaver fan as I am - and you have not yet read Mistress of Justice - steel yourself for possible disappointment.

these early Deaver re-issues are turning out as real gems among his back-catalogue. I can say with complete confidence that Jeffery Deaver has not once written a bad, unenjoyable book.

Deaver's writing style is concise and addictive. It's clever, quirky and enjoyable. His plots are well devised and well structured. They run smoothly and without a hitch.

This is a very good, very hig-class legal thriller, better than almost anything by John Grisham. the plot is complex and intriguing, and the lead character is very human and very likeable, with some very distinctive quirks which make her a pleasure to read about.

The book moves at great pace, and is a true page-turner. There are a couple of nice twists along the way, and, as is usual with Deaver, one final wallop right at the end.

Another very good book from Deaver...not quite his best, but i still reccomend that you read it. As i do with all his books.

I found this, on the whole, an enjoyable read. After a suspenseful opening, it took a while for the plot to grab me again--perhaps because the issues at stake didn't seem to be of life-or-death importance. The excitement level picked up, however, as the story progressed. The writing is excellent, the main protagonist a well-drawn character.

But none of the intended surprises caught me off guard, not even what was meant to be the biggest. Is this the fault of the book (a plot conceived some dozen years ago, however the author has sought to improve it), or of my having read too much Deaver lately? I honestly can't say.

This is my first Deaver book I have read. Good thing, I borrowed the book from the library. First half of the book was slow and not real interesting until the plot gets more interesting from second half of the book till the end. I didn't figure out the correct suspect until I almost reached the end. The suspense is great, but the story and wordings could have been better. I guess that's understandable since this one was one of author's earlier books. I hope his later books are better as other people say.

Deaver's plot in Mistress of Justice is very elaborate and chaotic. The finger is pointed at so many people and there is so much going on that I struggled to keep track. If part of the fun for you is figuring out "whodunit", I suggest taking notes right from the start. Even with notes, I think only the very astute reader will figure out the real culprit.

This novel was initially written in 1992 and the author modified it and updated the work ten years later. It is one of his better works, yet does appear to have a limited audience. The book is well researched and centers around the personalities in a large Wall Street Law Firm. The characters have depth and become richer as the work progresses. A good part of the book is spent in introducing the reader to the main vharacters and establishing the plot. Once the reader passes this, the book takes off rapidly and mixes suspense with a legal thriller that is difficult to put down. The writer is able to skilfully bring the reader into the world of his characters. When it appears that one has figured out the dorection of the writer, he is able to throw in unexpected twists that keep this book moving along at a rapid pace.

This book is nowhere near as good as Deaver's other work, before or after this novel. The "goings on" at the lawfirm are too exaggerated to make the story believable. Rather than serious fiction, it seemed more like bad comedy at times. Read one of Deaver's other novels for a treat, but skip this one.

Well before Jeffery Deaver gained a considerable following with his lengthy Lincoln Rhyme series, popularized by the movie based on the first in that set, "The Bone Collector" (with Denzel Washington as Rhyme), he authored two shorter series of books: "Rune" and "John Pellam {Location Scout}. He also penned several standalone novels of suspense, "Justice" being the first. Although the original story was published in 1992, Deaver admits to totally recreating it in this 2002 edition to make it more of a thriller. Written in two parts, the nearly 300-page first part describes a big NYC high-rise law firm (almost ala Grisham's "Firm") that is in the midst of a proposed merger that is little better than a mutiny. One of the prominent partners, Mitchell Reese, has enlisted paralegal Ms. Taylor Lockwood to help find a missing document that might stave off the merger. As she hunts for the insider responsible, she uncovers all manner of office treachery, illicit affairs, and other skullduggery occurring both inside and outside the firm, leading to some fateful outcomes in a related trial about the document. Then in the roughly 100-page part 2, Taylor rethinks some of the earlier events and makes further discoveries about who did what to whom!

While we didn't get to read the original, we'll agree Deaver has provided us the intended roller coaster ride of a plot. Whether the sleuthing machinations of the otherwise amateur Lockwood might be debatable, the story did move right along, strewing red herrings left and right along the way. We suspect most readers will indeed find "Justice" to be a suitably suspenseful early entry in the Deaver bibliography.