Through NetGalley, I receive the opportunity to request, receive and review books in eBook format. I was excited to get the opportunity to read The Hanging Judge: A Novel by Michael Ponsor.
BOOK REVIEW
The Hanging Judge
Author: Michael Ponsor
Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
About the book (from Goodreads):
Based on the
experience of the author, a federal judge who in 2000 presided over the
first capital case in Massachusetts in more than fifty years, this
extraordinary debut thriller offers an unprecedented inside view of a
federal death penalty trial
When a drive-by shooting in
Holyoke, Massachusetts, claims the lives of a Puerto Rican drug dealer
and a nurse at a neighborhood clinic, the police arrest a black drug
dealer. With no death penalty in Massachusetts, the US attorney shifts
the double homicide out of state jurisdiction into federal court so that
he can pursue the death penalty.
The Honorable David S.
Norcross, who has been on the federal bench only two years, now presides
over the first death penalty case in the state in fifty years. He must
contend not only with an ambitious female prosecutor and a brilliant
veteran defense attorney, but with a citizenry outraged at the senseless
killing of a white hockey mom—not to mention the pressures of the
media, anti-death penalty protesters, vengeful gang members, and the
million other things that can go wrong in a capital trial.
My Review:
I could not wait to read Michael Ponsor's book The Hanging Judge. The first draw for me was my absolute love for legal thrillers, but the second was the locale. I lived half of my life in New England and any book that will take me back their with any authenticity makes me very happy.
The Hanging Judge brings the reader inside the the courtroom of a death penalty case. It does so in a way that is absolutely flooring. Not only does the reader get to see the case from the side of the judge, the lawyers, and the person being tried, but the police, investigators and victims' families and more are all included. You might think this would be overwhelming, but Ponsor handles it remarkably. Each character is not a shadow but brought completely to life. They have back story and motives that are unique to themselves. The star is the story though each character is living as if they are the center. Michael Ponsor proved that he has a very intricate knowledge of the legal system as well as the human condition. That strength shines through in this novel.
I was floored at how my mind switched gears as I read and grasped the intricate cuts of this mystery thriller. The Hanging Judge had me scratching my head and stretching my mind's muscles as I tried to come up with the conclusion. This excited me all the more. There was no easy out for this story. Well done. I highly recommend it, and certainly do look forward to Michael Ponsor's next work. I hope it comes soon.
This eBook was provided to me for free through the publishers via NetGalley. This had no impact on my opinion. My opinion is all my own.
I love books, and honestly have not been reading enough lately. When it comes to genres, I like cozy mysteries, thrillers, Amish fiction, suspense, and even horror. For the most part, I tend to stick with some pretty uplifting fiction just as I do with the films I watch. I was sent an invitation a while back from Open Road Media to read and review a book by Linda Byler titled "Fire in the Night." They invited me to review it because I have reviewed and enjoyed Amish fiction in the past. They supplied this book via NetGalley to facilitate my review. Receiving this opportunity for free does not impact the review. These opinions are my own.
Title: Fire in the Night (Lancaster Burning)
Author: Linda Byler
About the book (from NetGalley):
Bestselling Amish writer Linda Byler introduces a new Amish novel, the first in her new series about Sarah Beiler in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The Amish community of Lancaster is being terrorized by barn fires. David and Malinda Beiler’s barn was the first to go. The clues are sparse, but Levi, the Beilers’ oldest son, happened to be awake in the middle of the night and spotted a white vehicle driving past the house with its lights off. Sarah, David and Malinda’s daughter, is in her late teens and old enough to observe her parents’ agony. Not only is she afraid, too, and wishing she could protect her parents, she’s entranced by the flirtatious Matthew Stoltzfus. He’s dating her friend, Rose, but when he tenderly bandages Sarah’s hand after she burned it at the barn raising, she wonders who he’s really interested in.?When a second Amish barn burns for suspicious reasons, the Amish grow more restless. “We’re too quiet too much of the time,” a group of Amish men tell David Beiler, their minister. Seriously considering police protection, the increasingly tense community questions their traditional nonresistant approach to violence. Sarah now finds herself at odds with her mother over her choice of boyfriends and uncertain about how to respond to the attention of Lee, a newcomer to Lancaster. Not only that, she wonders if her dad is a wise enough leader as her community reels from within and without. Everyone is on edge as the losses mount and suspicions undo the usual steadiness of these people.
My Review: This is the first book I have read by the author. I really did not know anything about her, and found out after I was about halfway through that she is actually Amish. Some have said that it is much better reading Amish fiction from an Amish author. In the long run, I just want to read good fiction, and whether or not the author is of the faith they are writing about or not is of no concern to me if the book is well written. If a book is well written with an engaging story, I will recommend to a friend. I would recommend Fire in the Night to a friend.
The story immediately grabbed my attention by bringing conflict into the pages fairly quickly along with giving me an opportunity to immediately start to learn about one of the characters. I am quite fond of mysteries so I found myself hoping as I read through the book to find a clue here and there. There were brief glimpses, but the focus really seemed to be more on Sarah and her love woes. I would have liked both the mystery and the romance to progress equally.
I enjoyed the characters and thought they were drawn out well. Levi, Sarah's older brother, was especially delightful. My heart went out to Sarah's family as well as the community as the fires and loss continued to devastate them. The author pulled some very real tears out of me which is not something easily done.
The descriptions in the story were occasionally long, but I never felt like they were heavy handed. There were moments though that I felt it would have been nice to trade off more information on tradition and the Amish ways with less description of Sarah trying to flatten her hair with fructis. I wanted to know why certain things were done the way they were, because they are so different from my own way of living.
The long and the short of it is this, Fire in the Night was a very well told story. I found myself caring about the characters and the community. The action moved along well enough to keep me engaged. It did not always swiftly move, but it didn't need to. My main concern as I came near the end of the book was a curiosity of how things were going to be resolved in the small amount of time left. The answer to that concern was a very abrupt ending with no resolution in sight. I kind of felt like I had turned a corner and walked directly into a wall. It would have been nice to see one thing resolved. If I had purchased the book, that might have ticked me off a bit, but then again, maybe it would inspire me to run out and get the next book. I definitely would like to read the next book in the series to see what happens next.
Again, I received this book for a review via the publisher through NetGalley.
