Search - The Best Defense (Barbara Holloway, Bk 2)

Kate Wilhelm has the ability to create characters that the reader cares about. In this book Barbara Holloway, Oregon lawyer, defends a battered woman, who took her baby to a home providing shelter to such women. The home is burned down, and the woman is labeled a "Baby Killer." Barbara, her lawyer-father Frank, and their investigator, Bailey, find neighbors who think women should be subservient to their husbands, and another who has a gun testing range. An excellent read.

From back cover:
The neighborhood in Eugene, Oregon, is blue-collar; the cafe holds only three tables and four booths. But it's the only place attorney Barbara Holloway feels both productive and peaceful. Laptop computer on the table, coffee refilled regularly by the cook, Barbara gets her work done and wants for nothing more...certainly not another explosive, emotionally devastating courtroom case.
Until a woman comes to Barbara with a case she cannot refuse. The sister of "Baby Killer" Kennerman, the tale she tells is so terrifying that Barbara must act. What she unearths is a corrupt conspiracy that will allow a killer to walk away free. And when she finds herself up against a smear campaign of unimaginable proportions, Barbara Holloway realizes that even the best defense may not be enough....

ISBN 0449223140 - Give or take 500 words, I might have given this book 5 stars - the problem is, there's reference to a relationship from the first book, and no explanation. If the author really felt the need to drag "Mike" into The Best Defense, she ought to have included some more details. If the Amazon Product Description hadn't mentioned that he died, I'd have assumed a bad break up.

That aside, the book is quite good. Barbara Holloway, trying to come to terms with what she does for a living, and how she does it, sets up shop in a small neighborhood restaurant, offering legal advice to people who couldn't otherwise afford it. Enter Lucille Reiner, sister of Paula "Baby Killer" Kennerman. Barbara takes the case, finding her client entangled in a conspiracy that goes far beyond the death of one child and the railroading of Paula. The complexity is a bit much at times, particularly during the trial, but it's worth the minor effort to keep the threads straight.

It seems obvious that Wilhelm's intention is to carry Barbara's relationship with her father, the neighborhood people and Bill into the next novel. That's fine - I just hope she does the extra work to explain things so that each book can stand alone. Getting people to read the earlier books might be her goal, but it will become annoying to the reader who came late to the series.

- AnnaLovesBooks