Review of Books, Crooks and Counselors
by Leslie Budewitz
Although I found no disclosure
requirement in the law, I wouldn’t want you to dismiss this review with
prejudice or to feel that I was negligent, so in the interest of full
disclosure I admit that I had high hopes for Books, Crooks and Counselors by mystery writer and attorney at law
Leslie Budewitz even before I read it.
Still I allege this review is as much pro bono as pro se.
Books, Crooks and Counselors won the
2011 Agatha Award for the best non-fiction award of the year. It is a 2012 Anthony and Macavity Nominee. I considered
those “solid clues” whether or not a court would accept them as evidence. But
after reading the book, I can recommend it ipso
facto. Albeit the author covered a
wide range of legal procedures and definition, nevertheless in the process she included examples of the concepts
discussed which kept things interesting.
For real fun you can watch the latest movie of the week legal thriller
while thumbing through the book and counting up the mistakes.
Of
course checking your own work before you present it to anyone else can help you
avoid making those same embarrassing errors.
14 comments:
Thanks for this, Warren. I remember how happy Leslie was when she received the Agatha. She has given us another solid resource to use. And she's working on her own mystery novel.
This is a reference well worth buying.
Thanks, Warren and Linda!
BTW, you can read an excerpt and more articles for writers on my website, http://www.LawandFiction.com and blog, http://www.LawandFiction.com/blog
Thanks, Leslie for writing a really helpful book for writing.
OH,, this is such a terrific book--and Warren, you are too clever!
(And thanks for the scoop Linda--I didn't now Leslie was working on a book! Leslie--that's terrific.)
Hank and friends --
The Food Lovers' Village Mysteries debut from Berkley Prime Crime in summer 2013. They're set in Jewel Bay, Montana, a small lakeside resort community on the road to Glacier Park, and feature Erin Murphy, the manager of a specialty regional food market, with a passion for retail, pasta, and huckleberry chocolates -- and a talent for murder.
Hurray hurray Hurray, Leslie! You''ll come blog at Jungle REd and tell us all about it, right? I get dibs on you for my week...
YAY!
I can also highly recommend Hank Phillippi Ryan's book THE OTHER WOMAN.
Warren! Thank you! I am..so thrilled! xo
Looking forward to the Food Lovers Village mysteries, Leslie. I have been ever since you talked about them at Malice. They sound full of good stuff!
I'm looking forward to Leslie's series, too! I often use legal problems as a source of conflict in my work, so I'm looking at Leslie's nonfiction as a great resource. Thanks Warren for the review, and of course Leslie for the writing.
The great thing about a resource like this is that you can refer to it as problems arise. Leslie's done a great job of making this an easy-to-use resource.
Also, Leslie, if you get a chance to go on Jungle Red, DO IT! Hank's a great host (hostess? is that politically incorrect these days?)
I've referred to Leslie's book often. It's a must for any crime writer's bookshelf.
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