THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503140269
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: ANN G. SJOERDSMA
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
SUSPICION OF GUILT
BARBARA PARKER
Dutton. 388 pp. $22.95.
THE ASTONISHING thing about Suspicion of Guilt, mystery novelist Barbara Parker's follow-up to her debut, Suspicion of Innocence, is that although it moves calculatedly, deliberately, almost facilely along in a linear fashion, seeming to pose few surprises, it nonetheless entertains. A whodunit spearheaded by an ambitious but principled lawyer, Suspicion of Guilt succeeds with an intelligently conceived plot and genuine mystery. I turned pages in spite of myself.
Wealthy Althea Tillett breathes her last gasp, as a man's arm slams against her throat, in what turns out to be the most engaging scene of the novel. As the slaying occurs in the prologue, faith and patience are needed to accompany Miami corporate attorney Gail Connor, hired by Tillett's estranged nephew to investigate a possible forgery of his aunt's will, down various avenues to the murder's unraveling. But patience pays off: Intriguing wrongdoing of the violent (more murders) and nonviolent (embezzlement) sort occurs, and Gail, a single mother, struggles with real conflicts of the heart and home.
Parker, a former prosecutor in Dade County, Fla., writes knowledgeably about big law-firm politics, casting Gail adrift in a turbulent sea of billable hours. She is less successful with navigating the beautiful young lawyer's choppy romantic waters. As a recurrent protagonist, though, Gail Connor more than holds her own. by CNB