Book Review: Unmerciful Lawyer

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Title:  The Unmerciful Lawyer
Author:  Scott Gaille
Pages:  192
Publication Date:  2010
Version:  Paperback (ARC copy received free through Goodreads First Reads/Giveaways)
Genre:  Adult Fiction

Summary Via Amazon.com:
"How does a lawyer from Texas stray so far from his conventional life?  It all changed in an instant, when Cameron shot an intruder in his home.  As he lay dying, Cameron's wife confessed to her affair with the man. Cameron was about to be branded the jealous killer of his wife's lover.  Everything was gone - his marriage, his promising legal career, and his very freedom.  Or were they?
 
The Unmerciful Lawyer is about a life upended and the desperation to return to normalcy. Cameron struggles to hide the truth from those who are searching for the missing man.  All the while, his suspicion and mistrust of his wife grow. Will the accidental murderer become a real one?  Cameron's plan to do away with his wife goes awry, and the end game of his future plays out in a Houston courtroom."

My Review:
Can killing a burglar in self defense turn your world into a living hell and make everything you thought you knew wrong?  In this book that is exactly what Cameron wonders and learns.  Cameron comes home from a business trip to hear someone enter into his home after him.  Thinking it is a burglar Cameron shoots the man, not meaning to kill him, just stop him from burglarizing his home.  As him and his wife see the man was shot in the heart and is dead Cameron learns something very disturbing form his wife.  This burglar is not a burglar at all, but her secret lover with whom she is having an affair with.  Due to this little tidbit of information Cameron and Macie (his wife) choose to not contact the police, but dispose of the body on their own.  After the fact Cameron is drawn into a whole tangled web of lies and deceptions form his “wonderful” and “loyal” wife.  The love he felt for Macie slowly disappears, but they have a young daughter together so he stays and they make the marriage seem normal and loving.  Over the years lots of things come to light about Macie and finally Cameron takes her to the place they went for their honeymoon for a nice vacation.  There she is killed in a terrible accident and when Cameron gets back to the U. S. (as the honeymoon spot was in Mexico), he is arrested at the gates in the airport for murdering his wife.  He then goes to trial for murder.  Did Cameron murder his wife?  Would he do that to their daughter Lea?  Is everything about the accident as it seems?

This book had a very good plot, that just made perfect sense.  I felt horrible for Cameron and his family.  The book has a nice flow of events.  It also supplies very subtle clues along the way that once things happen you think back to them and go….why didn’t I see that?  I thought this book was well written and a good book, however there were a few events that I thought kind of were drawn out.  Also, there was quite a bit of “lawyer talk” toward the end for the trial chapters, which, don’t get me wrong, belongs there, but some of it was a bit much and made me feel below the book.  It was all pretty easy to figure out when I kept reading, but it just was a bit much for me at times.  I loved the way Scott (the author) made me (the reader) wonder about certain things that happen in the trial though.  What do I mean by that?  Well, I read exactly what happened and knew what Cameron did or didn’t do from reading the book to that point, but when the trial was going on in the book it made me almost forget or second guess what I had read.  Made me wonder if I really knew any of what happened.  I found myself switching gears to the jury member instead of the “in the loop” reader.  I thought that was an amazing thing!  THAT is what made Scott Gaille a GREAT author to me, that he could make me switch my frame of mind like that.  So…you may be wondering, did Cameron kill his wife?  Well, I’m not going to tell you that, you have to read the book to find out!  You won’t regret the read at all.  I hope you come off as amazed at the writing as I did.

4 out of 5 Stars

This book counts toward my following challenges:  100 Books, 1,000,000 Pages Read, and A to Z Title Challenge.