28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing, must read and must have novel!!, February 3, 2005
This review is from: Silent Witness (Signet Novel) (Paperback)
Do not pass this book up!!!! Not only is this book a MUST read, it MUST be on your shelf at home! Once again, Rebecca Forster has captivated her audience with an intricate attention to detail, perfection in development of characters and essential qualities in a plot making this novel a riveting legal thriller.
Silent Witness is the second addition to Forster's series, and this incredible page turning novel will keep you in suspense with surprising twists in the plot; you can not help but be taken with the characters. This story about love, strength, work, personal, law, passion, honesty, integrity, trust, devotion, hard choices and secrets will leave you wanting more!! I can not wait for Privileged Witness. This author is amazing, and blessed with a creative gift.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A meticulously constructed, emotionally powerful thriller, February 26, 2005
This review is from: Silent Witness (Signet Novel) (Paperback)
Josie Baylor-Bates had given up her lucrative criminal defense practice some years ago, after a former client, one she successfully defended on a murder charge, turned around and killed her own children. She retreated to the small community of Hermosa Beach and a nice and quiet little law practice. Then a former college roommate asked her to defend her daughter, a troubled teen accused of killing her step-grandfather, a justice on the California Supreme Court. That case, the subject of Forster's previous novel Hostile Witness, took a lot out of Josie and changed her life in many ways; she might not have gotten through the ordeal at all without the support of her ex-cop lover Archer. Now she stands to lose Archer, as Silent Witness opens with his arrest for the murder of Timothy Wren, his physically and mentally handicapped step-son, two years ago.
Josie now learns that there is a lot about Archer that she never knew. She knew he had been married before and that his wife had died of cancer, but the man she loves had never mentioned his wife's son or described the horrible manner of his death - a fall from an amusement park ride at nearby Pacific Park. He is less than forthcoming about the incident now, despite the murder charge hanging over his head. Josie, of course, insists on defending him, even when he says he doesn't want her help. Her plans for getting the charges dropped before the case goes to court are pretty much dashed when she views security camera footage from the park that shows Archer making a movement toward Tim just before he fell to his death. All of the self-doubts that have plagued her since her mother abandoned her at thirteen threaten to come to the fore as she struggles to formulate a defense and battle the twinges of doubt over Archer's guilt that sometimes pop up as the evidence seems to mount against her lover and client. She knows the case is much too personal for her, but she cannot trust anyone else with Archer's very life on the line. Archer isn't a big help, keeping information from her and doing a few really stupid things that an ex-cop should know better than to do in a situation such as his.
Josie steels herself to be Archer's lawyer first and foremost, even if it means losing Archer from her life when everything is said and done and the courtroom drama brought to an end. She is sure that the amusement park is hiding something. The charge against Archer only came out after Timothy's natural father, the man who had abandoned his own son and wife a decade earlier, sued the park for damages in relation to his son's death. Colin Wren, for his part, is something of a sinister character who soon casts his ire upon Archer, but Wren's attorney, Jude Getts, proves to be a big asset to Josie and her case. A number of additional fascinating characters weave their way through the story in memorable and oftentimes mysterious ways.
I have to say that, while I think this novel is just terrific, I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Hostile Witness - largely because the defendant in this case, Archer, is so hostile and secretive throughout his ordeal that he makes Josie's job even harder than it already is. Hannah Sheraton, who is now living with Josie and trying to put her tragic young life back together, was a very sympathetic character in Hostile Witness, but Archer is not - especially in terms of his rigid and in some ways heartless feelings toward the step-son he never wanted and never loved. Certainly, the pain dredged up over the tragic fate of Tim and the premature loss of his beloved wife Lexi are touching, but he's a hard man to really like. Additionally, the mystery of what really happened at Pacific Park on that fateful day doesn't leave room for the sorts of conundrums that wound their way through every page of Hostile Witness. That being said, the novel really goes into overdrive the final one hundred pages and closes with a real bang.
Legal thriller fans should find themselves entranced by this novel. Forster has amazing skill at breathing real life into her characters, including both the good and bad inside each of them, and she is meticulous at leaving no loose ends hanging from the story she weaves. Nor does she give anything away too early, keeping readers alert and guessing until the end. It's a winning formula sure to impress and fascinate fans of legal thrillers.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally enthralling, December 9, 2004
This review is from: Silent Witness (Signet Novel) (Paperback)
Defense attorney Josie Baylor-Bates has taken troubled teen Hannah into her home after the girl's mother was found guilty of murder. While the two females adjust, Josie's lover, retired detective and practicing private investigator Archer is arrested for killing his mentally challenged stepson Tim two years ago in the Pacific Park amusement park while they and his dying wife rode the Shock and Pop together.
A video shows Archer making what could be a threatening move towards Tim. Ironically, Tim's biological father bailed Archer out of prison because he needs the truth to support his civil suit against Pacific Park. Evidence at the preliminary hearing binds Arch for trial; Josie needs a miracle to prove her lover is innocent of first degree murder.
Rebecca Forster's latest legal procedural is a thrilling courtroom and investigative drama in which Josie has doubts that she should represent her lover as she is too personally involved, but refuses to trust anyone else with his life. She also learns more than she ever wants to know about Archer in the course of her efforts to defend him. The investigative scenes are fascinating as Josie gathers evidence from witnesses that she uses at the trial to make the case that Archer had no motive to kill the child of the woman he loved. SILENT WITNESS is totally enthralling.
Harriet Klausner
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