Sunday, June 5, 2022
Author: Gail Ward Olmstead
Publisher: Black RoseWriting
ISBN: 978-1-68513-023-7
Gail Ward Olmstead setsher most recent novel, Miranda Writes, inConnecticut, where we meet Assistant District Attorney Miranda Quinn.Besides being an attorney with an outstanding conviction record, who“rocked in the courtroom,” she also has a podcast, MirandaWrites. The podcast provides legal advice, interviewsexperts, and presents valuable information on all matters legal.
The narrative unravelswhen we read about the Kane rape trial. Miranda is on a mission toseek justice for the nineteen-year-old victim, Chelsea O’Hara, whohad been battered and raped. However, she acknowledges the case isweak as no witnesses have appeared. The assailant would never beprosecuted.
A short time after, lawenforcement receive an unidentified call from a young lady informingthem that the description of the man who attacked Chelsea matched thesame person who attacked her. The call originated from an outsidephone booth. The police can track down the booth, which brings themto Becky Lewis. Becky had left her fingerprints in the booth. Inaddition, she was recently arrested for shoplifting; a criminalrecord is on the file containing her fingerprints.
Becky and Chelsea arebought in by the police, and both identify high school photos ofTerry Kane as their attacker. He is brought in for questioning, andthe girls pick him out in a lineup as being their assailant. The caseis now looking up for Miranda, and she feels it is a “slam dunk.”After all, wasn’t she known among her colleagues as “Quinn forthe Win?”
Her strategy was to haveBecky on the witness stand and describe what happened to her whilerevealing to the jury that it was Kane who brutally assaulted her.However, as the poet Robert Burns once wrote: “The best-laid plansof mice and men often go awry.” When Miranda goes to the motel,where she hid Becky the night before the trial, Becky has vanishedinto thin air! The trial against Terry Kane is thrown out, and hewalks away a free man. As for Miranda, she loses her job.
Adding a little more spiceto the plot, we discover that Miranda’s boyfriend, Adam Baxter, wasan attorney in the law firm that was defending Kane at the time ofthe trial. As the yarn advances, it is revealed that he is only outfor his own gain and doesn’t care whom he hurts. Nothing willprevent him from attaining a partnership in his firm.
Fast forward three years,where the plot takes a twist. Miranda receives a startling phone callfrom Becky. She explains to Miranda that her sister, Rachel, hasinformed her of a young girl who was raped in a park. Becky waspositive that Kane was involved in the most recent rape. Beckyfurther discloses some alarming information regarding Miranda’sformer boyfriend, Adam, concerning his participation in Kane'sprevious trial.
Miranda is now determinedthat she must meet with Becky as soon as possible. She is alsosurprised by how one phone call could transform her life. After beingdischarged as Assistant District Attorney, Miranda was dedicating agood chunk of her time to her podcast, filling a gap in her life. Thepodcast had been top-rated, and she was offered her own daytimetelevision show. Finally, her life seems to be coming together. Willshe be able to make amends for having previously screwed up animportant case, allowing a vicious criminal go free? Will any moresurprises await her?
Olmstead has crafted a tale of betrayal driven by aflowing narrative style and a fast moving plot with realisticdialogue that gives it the grip of a thriller. The suspense is worthseveral cups of coffee that will undoubtedly keep you up at night.
Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com