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EXTREME INDIFFERENCE
by Stephanie Kane
Pocket Star, November 2004
384 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0743466810


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Jackie Flowers has a reasonably good life. She's a former public defender, now working on her own, sharing a practice with a motley crew of second-rate lawyers. Her investigator, Pilar Perez, also serves as a firewall against anything that Jackie might have to read; Jackie has severe dyslexia. Severe enough that she doesn't drive.

Jackie is muddling along in her practice, trying to decide whether or not to strike out totally on her own and get away from the lawyer upstairs who can't run the copy machine, from depending on anyone besides herself to make the rent and utility payments.

Glenn Ballard is a federal judge, headed for the chief justice position, when he is accused of kidnapping Amy Lynch, a local college student. There are elements of S&M in the case; Amy was found wandering near Ballard's cabin wearing nothing but a dog collar and handcuffs. The cuffs belonged to Judge Ballard. The charges are upped to murder in the first degree when Amy dies before she can reveal anything about how she got to the cabin. The prosecutor is Phyllis Klein, 'Boulder's date-rape queen', who has some history with Jackie.

One does not become a federal judge by being a shrinking violet; federal judges don't seem to make very good clients. Ballard is convinced that he is being framed. There are logical reasons for that belief, but they aren't necessarily reasons that can be introduced in a courtroom. Ballard does not want to use any of the legal options open to him, any of the options Jackie believes would help him. He is positive that all he needs to do is testify -- after all, he's a federal judge and why wouldn't anyone on a jury believe him? Especially since all the 'evidence' is wrong. He's the client from hell.

Jackie does have other cases to deal with. She also has a young Chinese friend Lily, who wants to be a ballerina but isn't as sure about going to ballet camp. So there is life outside a courtroom.

Part of that life may or may not be a former lover, who is trying to get back into Jackie's life. She's reluctant, since they never did hash out the reason for the break-up; he wants to know that before he is willing to go down that road again.

I enjoyed this book. The pace is good, the characters are interesting and no more hackneyed than you'll find in most legal thrillers on the shelves right now. I didn't see the villain coming and I'm not sure the average reader will because I'm not sure we're given enough information ahead of time to do that. The level of suspense kept racheting upward, slowly but inevitably. The ending doesn't take place in a courtroom, but works within the confines of the plot.

I do have one big problem with EXTREME INDIFFERENCE. Jackie Flowers is severely dyslexic. I have no problem believing that a dyslexic can be a lawyer; Jackie is certainly intelligent enough and gutsy enough. The vexing question for me is how she can be a lawyer and not have anyone know she's dyslexic. How did she take the LSATs? Or the law boards? How does she handle paperwork handed down from the bench, which must be dealt with on-the-spot?

I realize that people with learning disabilities can (and have) learn to bluff their way through a lot of things, learn to function using other cues where most people read, and so on. Jackie fears other people learning about her dyslexia, and this fear is a major inhibitor in her life. Every time she frets about this, I am pulled out of the story. Every time some plot device hinges on her ability, or lack of it, I find myself questioning the whole scenario. Again, my problem is not with Jackie being a dyslexic lawyer but with her being able to function as a lawyer without anyone knowing she's as dyslexic as Kane paints her. If you can get past this, EXTREME INDIFFERENCE is a good legal thriller. If you can't, it's tough going.

Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, August 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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