Conflict of Interest
 Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
 (Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
 2002 Hyperion
  ISBN: 0786866209

Attorney Joanne Kuhlman discovers a far more serious crime when trying defendants for robbery, of which one is developmentally disabled.

Sr. Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg is one of the recognized big shots in the legal thriller genre, a name that stands right alongside Lisa Scottoline or Perri O'Shaughnessy as top women legal thriller authors. Her debut work Mitigating Circumstances & the subsequent Interest of Justice were marvelous reads, & I was looking somewhat on those lines when I started Conflict of Interest. However, it's not on par with the author's other works.

Joanne Kuhlman, a feisty & dedicated District Attorney is assigned the task of bringing to book three defendants accused of robbery, Tom & Gary Rubinsky & the developmentally disabled, Ian Decker. Decker's attorney Arnold Dreiser, & his mother insist that Ian was a victim of exploitation by the Rubinsky brothers, & that he did not know that he was committing a crime. Kuhlman is sympathetic towards Decker but cannot bring herself to believe that he should be absolved from liability. A couple of days later Decker disappears & it is feared that he might have been done away with by the Rubinsky brothers. A mysterious telephone call that Decker has been killed prompts Kuhlman to investigate more into the matter & what follows is a suspense-filled adventure where the attorney finds the half-truths & the full truths.

Conflict of Interest, like other Rosenberg works is action- & plot-packed. However, readers looking for legal drama or courtroom action concerning the nature of liability that can be fixed upon a developmentally disabled person are bound to be disappointed, as the work does not delve much into this aspect, though the author acknowledges that the issue is of great significance.

On a side-track, there is the story of Kuhlman's troubles with her former husband, there is also a flashback of the life of Eli Connors, a former CIA Agent who keeps a watch on Joanne from any possible attack from her former husband. However these sub plots & stories scantily help in character building or in plot building in the final scheme of things.

Personally, I feel that an ideal ending for the work should have been a courtroom drama where the issue of the developmentally disabled are brought to light, as John Grisham did with The Chamber when he brought to fore the justifiability of the death penalty; or, the rights & privileges of gays & AIDS patients as Ron Nyswaner did with Philadelphia (yes, the Tom Hanks movie!); & the reader be given the opportunity to delve more into the legal issue & form his own opinion.

The author missed a golden opportunity to deal in the same manner to bring to fore legal issues of the nature of liability of developmentally disabled persons.

As an ordinary thriller the book is engrossing, but for the devotees of Rosenberg novels, Conflict of Interest is a disappointment. The blurb promises a lot, but in the end it's just not up to the Rosenberg standard.

So say I!
(05/12/02)

Narayan
2002©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org