Book Review: Prey To All

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Prey To All     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Natasha Cooper
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Legal Setting   Woman Main Character
Series: Trish Maguire # 3
St. Martin’s, Dec 2000, 304 pp.

Independent TV production company chief Anna Greyling is working on Rough Justice, the story of a woman serving life for murdering her acerbic, ailing father. Anna asks her friend, barrister Trish Maguire, to provide legal advice to the show as well as proving that Deb Gibbert, the mother of four, did not kill her father. Unable to resist the lure of film and the case itself, Trish accepts the offer.

After reviewing the case files, Trish realizes that the case against Deb is extremely powerful. Besides having the means, motive, and opportunity, her loved ones and the attending physician believe patricide occurred. In Trish’s opinion Deb’s barrister put up only a half-hearted defense. Only Anna and a former lover of Deb give credence to the woman’s innocence.

PREY TO ALL is an exciting, well-written British legal thriller. The story line belongs to the charcaters, especially Trish and Deb, as readers understand their feelings. That insight along with close scrutiny into the thoughts of the doctor and Deb’s lawyer augments the entertaining plot that looks carefully at the price of a weak defense. Anyone who has tried a Natasha Cooper novel (see Willow King books) knows that the author is one of the best writers of the British psychological legal thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner