Partners Author:William Harrington Meet T. J. Biijiver (known as Teejay to her friends. She is a prominent Houston lawyer and she is in jail, charged as a conspirator in the murder of her most important client. So begins a compelling novel that takes you into the lives and loves of three remarkable women: Teejay Brookover, who has scrambled to the top of her profession from the m... more »ost humble beginnings on a hardscrabble West Texas farm; Lois Farnham Hughes, Teejay's defense counsel, the daughter of money and position, who strives to gain an identity for herself apart from the family name; and The Honorable Norma Jean Spencer, the trial judge who has made bitter concessions to attain a judgeship and will make more to keep it.
The child of a family of grim Pentecostals, Teejay has escaped from her background. Working as a cocktail waitress, she had made her own way, from high school through a law degree and admission to thee bar. A tough, sometimes abrasive, lawyer, she has earned the respect but also the resentment of the Houston establishment.
Lois knows painfully well that everything was handed to her on a silver platter -- her place in society and politics, her education, a partnership in one of Houston's best law firms. She has never been sure how much of her success as a lawyer is the product of her ability, how much a gift. She wants to know.
Norma has struggled all her professional life not to be remembered as Bunny, the cute blonde in the white fur bikini on her sorority's homecoming float. Yet , sometime, it is useful to be Bunny. When she makes a final choice not to be, her career suffers.
The murder trial of Teejay Brookover becomes a life crisis for all three women. Teejay faces life in prison. Norma could lose her judgeship. Perhaps risking more than the others, Lois must confront her true self.
A fast-paced, dramatic novel, Partners takes you into the corridors of power, the politics-ridden judicial chambers, and the bedrooms and courtrooms of ruthless, exciting, and beautiful people.« less