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The Best Defense

A Barbara Holloway Novel

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The Best Defense

Written by: Kate Wilhelm
Narrated by: Anna Fields
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A gripping, poignant, and masterful courtroom novel, The Best Defense is a major work from one of America's most popular writers.

After her recent harrowing experiences, attorney Barbara Holloway isn't looking to take on any new courtroom cases; instead she's happy working from a booth in a cafe in the local working-class neighborhood.

But when the sister of "Baby Killer" Kennerman asks for help, Barbara reluctantly looks into matters and finds that incompetent lawyers and a smear campaign from the local right-wing press are going to allow a killer to go free. The deeper Barbara delves into the case, the more atrocities she finds and the more she believes that the best defense may not be enough.

With this extraordinary novel, Kate Wilhelm returns to the marvelous milieu of Death Qualified, bringing us a legal thriller of the finest caliber.

©1994 Kate Wilhelm; (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks Legal Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting
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good legal story. if you enjoy reading about how lawyers work their cases, this is perfect

a bit slow at the beginning

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Kate Wilhelm is an accomplished SciFi-Fantasy author.. and it shows. Her storytelling is imaginative, but grounded in logic and plausibility. This book is hyperrealistic and relatable. Her courtroom drama is also well-paced and compelling.
Less fortunately, her vocabulary/prose is run-of-the-mill unremarkable, her character development is "adequate", and her messaging is agenda-driven (too-strong feminist "men bad" themes).

Reader Anna Fields doesn't help the situation, either. She's undeniably professional in terms of diction, timbre, and cadence.. but often sounds like she's reading a text lying open on her lap, and with some of the most annoying male character interpretations ever. Her voice-acting is terrible.

Altogether, I give 'The Best Defense' 6 stars out of 10. If Wilhelm kept to the courtroom (e.g. paced the whole thing like those scenes), the book would be much better. If Blackstone Audio Inc. had cast the book differently, this recording would be much better. Given those missteps, I can’t recommend the audiobook after it leaves the 'Plus' menu. As a free selection, however, it had enough enjoyable features to prompt me to continue with the 'Barbara Holloway' series of Legal Thrillers.

[Incidentally: Why somebody didn't say "Your honor, she's leading.." or "Your honor, she's badgering.." is baffling]

Very Good Book

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Awesome,mind boggling court room drama just fantastic…a lot of twists and turns and maybe some tears. You will be held and will listen all day or night

Fantastic

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