Book Review: Nightingale's Gate

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Nightingale's Gate     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Linda Francis Lee
Class/Genre:   Romance
Ivy, Jun 2001, $6.99, 352 pp.

In the late nineteenth century Boston, District Attorney Walker Kendall charges the owner of Nightingale’s Gate gentleman’s club Lucas Hawthorne with murder. The distinguished DA plans to prove in court that the debased Lucas killed hooker Lucille Rouge.

Forced by his brother Grayson to obtain legal council, Lucas visits young lawyer Alice Kendall, daughter of the famous DA. Alice knows she must refuse to accept Lucas as a client though she could use the money. Alice realizes that defending the notorious Lucas will be construed as a conflict of interest. She also knows that she has no experience with homicide cases. Alice concludes that she cannot mount a proper defense. In spite of what she should do, intrigued by Lucas, Alice accepts him as her client. As they work closely together, the virtuous Alice and the depraved Lucas fall in love, but he cannot escape his past.

NIGHTINGALE’S GATE is an exhilarating romantic legal procedural that readers from both genres will relish. The conflict of interest (at least from a modern day perspective) should have halted the heroine's involvement in the case, but once the audience accepts Alice's entry, the plot turns into a stirring historical tale. Lucas is a tormented individual while Alice is a brave person trying to succeed in an exclusively male world. If justice prevails Linda Francis Lee will receive a cache of new readers wanting more historical romantic legal thrillers like this one.

Harriet Klausner

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