About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Bill’s Best of 2013 Fiction

It is starkly beautiful with a bright Saskatchewan sun shining off the hoarfrost on the trees. With nary a cloud in the sky the high was -27C and it is a good day to be inside thinking about the books I read in 2013. I read 58 books this year which was one more than 2012.

For my 14th year I have compiled a list of Bill’s Best for the year. This post will cover Fiction. My next post will be on Non-Fiction and my personal category of Most Interesting.

For the first time in the 14 years Bill’s Best of Fiction involves a quartet of books that either are legal mysteries or feature lawyers.

My Best books are not necessarily written in 2013. They are from the books I read in 2013.

Bill’s Best of 2013 Fiction are:

1.) The Gifted by Gail Bowen – The 14th book in the Joanne Kilbourn series becomes the first in the series to be chosen Bill’s Best of the year. Gail’s books have made the most appearances with four on my annual lists.

The Gifted is a remarkable book for the integration of multi-generation family issues into the mystery.

Joanne's 14 year old adopted daughter, Taylor, has become an accomplished painter. At the same time she is maturing and her tentative relationship with 19 year old Julian causes Joanne and her husband, Zack, considerable angst. The book further looks back to Taylor's biological mother at Taylor's age.

When murder occurs Zack, who had taken a year off from his law practice, is drawn back into a legal defence.

2.) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – The iconic novel was written 53 years ago. It is remarkable how fresh it remains for readers two generations later. In my review I regretted not reading the book earlier in my life. I have been reflecting on why I had not read the book. I think I was unduly influenced by the fame of the book. I doubted the book could be as good as it had been praised. It is an illogical approach to reading. I have tried to avoid reading books with pre-conceptions and my experience with To Kill a Mockingbird reinforces the need to let the book form my thoughts on its quality.

I loved Scout Finch, a girl of 6 at the start of To Kill a Mockingbird. She is a great character. Out of all the dozens of legal mysteries I have read I can recall only one other where a child was a primary character. Mark Sway, 11 years old, in The Client by John Gisham is a character both in the book and the movie I have not forgotten.

Millions of readers wished Lee would have written more books involving Scout and Atticus Finch. I think a great novel could have been set 30 years later in the mid-1960’s with Scout a young lawyer working with Atticus, old enough to be winding down his practice, to fight to integrate Alabama schools.

3.) Stranglehold by Robert Rotenberg – The fourth book in the series featuring Toronto lawyers, prosecutors, judges and journalists is the most complex without being complicated.

Prosecutor, Jennifer Raglan, is slain moments before an assignation with lover, Detective Ari Greene. In a decision that almost moved me to swear at the book Greene tries to keep his involvement with Raglan secret. His efforts are futile and he ends up charged with murder.

Rotenberg helped make the book memorable with one of the secondary characters. In most books, if a major character is cheating on their spouse the author portrays a spouse with a dark personality. In Stranglehold Raglan’s husband is a good and decent, though boring man. After her death, while not absolving her of the infidelity, he does not blacken her memory for their children. His integrity shows Greene is flawed in carrying on the affair. In the end it makes Greene a more credible character.

3.) Sycamore Row by John Grisham – Rural Mississippi in the late 1980’s is poor. While class and racial distinctions remain they are being blurred. The old families that have dominated Ford County life are fading as the current generation wastes inheritances. White power has cracked with the election and re-election of a black Sheriff.

Yet when a successful white businessman, in a handwritten will, leaves the bulk of his fortune to his black housekeeper the challenge to his will is as much a question of class and race as it is of testamentary capacity and undue influence.

In his lawyer, Jake Brigance, I can see the lawyer Grisham either was or more likely hoped to be when he was practising law in real life. Both Brigance and Grisham graduated from law at the University of Mississippi early in the 1980’s. Both practised law in Mississippi communities near Memphis. Neither worked for the local establishment – banks, insurance corporations and large corporations. Grisham, in Brigance, has created a lawyer to rival Atticus Finch.

Have I been unfair in choosing only books involving lawyers for Bill’s Best of 2013 Fiction? I plead that I have been objective while acknowledging that all readers have a degree of personal bias in their decisions on what is best.

13 comments:

  1. I think it's true that books which have such a position in our culture like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD are often difficult to approach because we have such expectations of them, But I'm glad you liked it so much, one of my favourite all time books (I read it at high school first).

    As for choosing lawyer books for your best of list at least you are well placed to pick the authentic ones

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    1. Bernadette: Thanks for the comment.

      I wish To Kill a Mockingbird had been required reading when I was in high school or university.

      I am glad you have confidence in me to pick "authentic" lawyer books.

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  2. I like the way your choices show how very varied law-themed fiction can be. And you are entitled to pick lawyer books! I think we all rely on your expertise in looking at that area.

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    1. Moira: Thanks for commenting. I hope there will continue to be a diversity of legal fiction and not just books on lawyers defending or prosecuting those charged with murder.

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  3. Bill, I'd have read more legal thrillers and mysteries, too, if I were a lawyer. I've enjoyed reading your insight into legal fiction. I think "To Kill A Mockingbird," "Stranglehold," and "Sycamore Row" are powerful novels and I hope to read the last two though I've also long meant to reread Harper Lee's classic. I'll probably have a different view of it than I did more than two decades ago.

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    1. Prashant: Thanks for the comment. I think having life experiences helps in reading and understanding legal fiction.

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  4. Bill - I like your list very much. Of course, I love Gail Bowen's work. And To Kill a Mockingbird is, I think, a classic for a reason. I'm looking forward to your other posts.

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    1. Margot: Thanks for the comment. I am glad you enjoy Gail Bowen's work. I expect you can appreciate her character better than most readers being a fellow academic.

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  5. Nice list, Bill. It will be a while before I get to that point in Gail Bowen's series, but I will get there someday. I will keep both the Grisham and Rotenberg books in mind for future reading.

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    1. TracyK: Thanks for the comment. I hope you get a chance to venture into courtrooms in 2014 though legal fiction.

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  6. I love legal mysteries, will add Bowen's and Rotenberg's books. Not always available in my library, but will requesr them, Grisham's is on my TBR quickly list.

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    1. Kathy D.: Thanks for the comment. You have good reading ahead with Gail and Robert and John.

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  7. I'm 250 pages into Sycamore Row and loving it -- and laughing. Grisham sure knows how to poke fun at lawyers and other characters in Mississippi.

    It makes me realize that some of the books I read are not up to this writing caliber. And even though I had been disappointed with some of Grisham's books, which I thought had become mediocre and a bit boilerplate, this book soars.

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