Kate Lange is a first year associate at a high-class law firm who is embroiled in a mess – a mess she feels partly responsible for; a mess made by the Body Butcher…
The Body Butcher… did that grab your attention?
Kate is trying to make a name for herself at the law firm of LMB, but when she keeps getting handed the piddly little family law cases, she becomes exasperated. When her new client, a grandmother who would like to gain custody of her out-of-control granddaughter, who also happens to be the daughter of a well-respected judge in the community, walks in, begging for Kate’s help, she finds herself in a very sticky situation. Not wanting to annoy her managing partners, she basically tells the grandma that she needs to find evidence of neglect before anything can be done. I mean who wants to step on the toes of a judge?! Not a first-year law associate!
When the out-of-control granddaughter is found dead, with all of her limbs removed, Kate bears a heavy burden. Is she responsible for the girl’s death? Should she have done more? As her guilt begins to overwhelm her, she starts to investigate on her own, uncovering some secrets that are complex and may prove deadly. And as more bodies begin to pile up, Kate finds herself engrossed in a scheme so outrageous that she may not live through to its final conclusion.
Kate is a multi-dimensional character with a lot of back-story that is slowly revealed to the reader through the course of the book. She is recovering from a tragic event in her teenage years and is struggling to come to terms with a father who is not quite on the right side of the law. Throw in a recent break-up with her fiancée, who is a cop, and you have the makings of a very multifaceted character. There’s almost too much going on with her. Talk about someone with a lot of issues!
Without going into a lot of details and getting into some of the major plot points, there were certain parts of this book that I had a hard time with and that could be due to my lack of knowledge about the medical field as a whole. The author does do a terrific job of plotting everything out, but I didn’t find the subject matter particularly interesting, so I got bogged down in it at certain parts. And with this book being a hefty 450 pages, there were quite a few times that I really had to plod through the narrative.
This is a good start to the Kate Lange series from debut author, Pamela Callow. Was it a good thriller? Absolutely. Was I blown away by this book? Not really. Will I read the next book in the series? Probably. It will depend on the subject matter – and from the brief snippet at the end of this book, I think it sounds more my style!
