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Summary
Summary
"I don't know how you've survived at the Bar this long," Anthony said to Trish. "Caring for your clients to the point of derangement is bad enough; but to start fretting over the opposition. . . . "
In spite of the barristers' rule that any suitably quali'ed member of the Bar who is free to take an offered case must do so, QC Trish Maguire can't quite understand how her head of chambers, Anthony Shelley, can accept a case defending the corrupt Clean World Waste Management company. So when the brilliant and cynical Anthony is nearly killed in an accident, Trish is faced with a painful dilemma: Does she take over the company's defense, or threaten her hard-won career by refusing to appear in court against Angie Fortwell, the impoverished widow of a hard-working farmer? As Trish delves deeper into the case, she grows more and more troubled by a nagging thought: Was the explosion that killed Angie's husband really an accident, or the result of sabotage?
With all this going on at work, the last thing Trish needs is the possibility of explosions at home. Yet she can't simply walk away from Jay, the clever but damaged fourteen-year-old boy who has attached himself to her family---especially when his mother is found beaten and close to death.
A brilliant novel of crime and its consequences, A Poisoned Mind demonstrates the full range of Natasha Cooper's emotional intelligence and storytelling powers.
Author Notes
Natasha Cooper, an ex-publisher, past chair of the Crime Writers' Association, and lifelong Londoner, sets her novels in the city that she loves. In 2002, she was shortlisted for the Dagger in the Library, an award that goes to "the author whose work has given the most pleasure to readers." She regularly speaks at crime writing conferences on both sides of the Atlantic, including an appearance as Toastmistress at Bouchercon 2004. Visit her online at www.natashacooper.co.uk.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
London barrister Trish Maguire, now a Queen's Counsel, undergoes messy professional and personal tribulations in her thought-provoking ninth outing (after 2007's Evil Is Done). When her head of chambers is severely injured in an accident, Trish assumes the defense of Clean World Waste Management against Angela Fortwell, who's arguing her own case after her husband died on their marginal Northumberland farm in a CWWM chemical tank explosion. The caring heart under Trish's judicial robes goes out to Angela, but it doesn't stop Trish from making a scrupulous and unorthodox defense. In addition, Trish; George, her partner of 10 years; and her early-teen stepbrother, David, struggle to free David's near-feral friend, Jay, from his slum-dwelling abusive family, like the one Trish herself once had to overcome. As current as today's environmental causes and as eternal as a woman's tightrope walk between self and others, this legal puzzler testifies to Cooper's insight and narrative powers. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A tormented teen and a tricky liability case add up to double trouble. Barrister Trish Maguire (Evil is Done, 2007, etc.) has recently been elevated to Queen's Counsel, but so far no cases have come her way. So she's helping head of chambers Antony Shelley defend a corporation handling hazardous waste against a suit brought by the widow of a man killed in an explosion. Angela Fortwell and her husband had left high-powered jobs years ago to run a sheep farm. Not very successful, and alienated from their only child, they scraped along by taking in paying guests and monitoring a hazardous waste site on their farm. When Antony is nearly killed in a street accident, Trish is forced to take over the case. She has the additional problem of managing the volatile friendship between her younger brother David and his school friend Jay, a clever boy with a violent temper who's the fatherless son of an alcoholic mother. Her boyfriend George has his own house but spends a good deal of time helping out with the boys while Trish works on the unpalatable case. Using a recess to explore other possible explanations, Trish emphatically doesn't like what she finds. An intricate, literate entwining of a legal mystery with a complex character's muddled life. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Shortly after she has taken silk (meaning being appointed a Queen's Counsel, or senior barrister, thus becoming more costly for her clients), Trish Maguire takes over a case from an injured associate at the eleventh hour. Representing Clean World Waste Management, whose exploding chemical tanks killed the man charged with monitoring them, she must trounce the feisty grieving widow, whose sole support comes from a fringe environmental group with a leader who arouses suspicion. The principled Trish, suspecting sabotage, soon veers from the course prescribed by both client and colleagues and follows her intuition and the money. At the same time, she is beset with domestic crises centering on the delinquent friend of her 14-year-old adopted half brother, David, a situation that allows exploration of social problems caused by severely dysfunctional families. The ninth in the Trish Maguire series, this is an accomplished and suspenseful tale with an unexpected final twist, its greatest pleasure coming from the evolution of the primary characters and their relationships.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Barrister Antony Shelley is struck down by a motorcycle, and Queen's Counsel Trish Maguire reluctantly takes over the case of a toxic waste containment company being sued for damages after an exploding tank killed a farmer. Cooper is a master at witty crime novels that inform, delight, and fool unsuspecting readers. Patrons who enjoy Lisa Scottoline and Perri O'Shaughnessy might want to try this British author. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.