Tag: Rachel Knight

The Competition by Marcia Clark

The Competition (Rachel Knight, #4)The Competition

by Marcia Clark

Hardcover, 416 pg.
Mulholland Books, 2014
Read: July 28, 2014

So, Rachel Knight and her pal Det. Bailey Keller are called to the scene of a deadly shooting at a high school. Very deadly — it soon becomes clear that there will be a higher death count here than any other school shooting, which is exactly what the gunmen were going for. Students of mass shootings throughout our nation’s recent past, these criminals have set out to out-perform those they see as their inferiors.

The Rachel Knight novels are typically legal tension, wrangling, and some suspense — but mostly it’s about how do we catch this guy up in a lie?, how do we prove what we know?, and so on. But from page 8 when the bullets start flying, The Competition is pure, old-fashioned thriller-style tension. How long will it take to find the guys?, what will happen before they do? Riots, panic, more shooting? Yes, there’s also plenty of twists and turns, and the requisite Rachel Knight et al. cuteness. But mostly, this one’s a race against time and danger.

Marcia Clark steps out into some risky territory here — one only has to look back to the season premier of Sons of Anarchy last year to see the very divided critical and fan reaction to the school shooting. She manages it very well, not pushing any of the several political or social debates that she could here. The focus is kept on the criminals, trying to figure out why they did what they did, how to stop their evil. I can’t help but think of the old Nero Wolfe line, “Nothing corrupts a man so deeply as writing a book; the myriad temptations are overwhelming.” It’d have been so easy for Clark to succumb to temptation and pontificate here, to push her particular viewpoint on gun-issues, but she doesn’t. Well done.

I did guess almost every plot twist she used (and one I was convinced she was going to pull, but didn’t — even after the moment passed, I was looking for it). But it didn’t matter, she played every note just the way she should’ve, and even if I saw a trick coming, it worked. Was an edge-of-your-seat page-turner through and through. Hope to see a little more of Rachel the lawyer rather than Rachel the investigator next time, but chalk this up as another win for Knight and Clark.

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4 Stars

Killer Ambition by Marcia Clark

Killer Ambition
Killer Ambition by Marcia Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm, wonder where Clark got the idea and experience to do a novel about a case with ties to Hollywood, celebrity and an all-invasive press corps trying the case outside the courtroom while putting all the details of the attorney’s lives on display for all the world. . . These parts of the novel worked so well — obviously, her own experiences and role as commentator since that one case have equipped her to tackle these things.

The relationships between Rachel and her friends/coworkers/romantic entanglements remain strong — although I think it was a bit more in the background this time around, and the book suffered for it.

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure we spent more time in court in this novel than the two previous. Which is good, on the one hand, because these are supposed to be legal thrillers, so it’s good to have the courtroom proceedings. On the other hand, these are supposed to be legal thrillers, and on the whole, the pace and momentum of this books comes to a standstill in the details of the trial. Now, maybe this is just me — after my Perry Mason phase in high school, most of the courtroom depictions I’ve read have been by David Rosenfelt or from Paul Levine‘s Solomon & Lord series — and while Clark has a fun, light touch — she’s nowhere near as amusing as these two. Similarly, she doesn’t have the gravitas and talent of Michael Connelly — by the time Mickey Haller gets to court, the brakes have failed and there’s nothing to slow the runaway freight train of tension, suspense and energy. I’m not saying I want Clark to turn into a clone of any of these gentlemen — I’m just saying that until she improves, her readers are better served with Rachel & co. doing the bulk of their work in the field.

In the end, it was worth slogging through the slower portions, for the resolution to the mystery as well as to see how it all played out in the lives of those related to the case — I particularly liked the storyline involving the Lindsay Lohan-ish character. Now that she’s had her say about media circus trials and life under the microscope, I do hope that Clark gets back to the sorts of cases/victims that made the earlier books so much fun to read.

Dusted Off: Guilt by Degrees by Marcia Clark

Guilt by Degrees (Rachel Knight, #2)Guilt by Degrees by Marcia Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think it’s safe to say that Marcia Clark got out-lawyered in that one instance we all know about, and it’s safe to say that there are better legal-thriller writers out there. But, all in all, it was clear she was a pretty good prosecutor, and it’s pretty clear she’s a pretty good legal-thriller writer.

There were a couple of clunky sentences — one early on that would’ve been enough to throw the book away, but I muscled on 🙂 Other than that, and some obnoxious early chapters focusing on the piece’s villains (mostly paid off in the end), it was a strong book with just enough twists and turns to keep things moving.

I do think her first novel was a bit stronger–but that might just be because I was surprised it wasn’t horrible, and this time out I had higher expectations. Regardless, a compelling, well-paced mystery that leaves you wanting another one, and soon.

Dusted Off: Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark

Guilt by Association (Rachel Knight #1)Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this one up out of curiosity, and ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected to. Sure, Rachel Knight is a thinly-disguised Marcia Clark (and she shows an incredible lack of taste when she knocks Coconut M&Ms), but at least she’s a fun thinly-disguised version of herself.

Solid legal thriller, like Mickey Haller’s kid-sister. If Knight & co. are back for a second round, I’ll be there.

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