Having been filled with exams all that they bring, my life has been without books for a while (apart from those dreaded text books). Having not read since The Lost Symbol I needed to get back into reading. My gran had suggested me a book before Easter and I had tossed it aside due to a) The Lost Symbol and b) lack of time to read in uni c) it was extra clutter I simply didn't need. Now my gran has suggested books to me before, including Playing For Pizza which turned out to be brilliant. It was a John Grisham book that was completely different to his usual law based crime thrillers. It was solely about American Football in Italy, and typically I loved it. Before I continue, I feel I should tell you a little bit about my gran for those of you who don't know her or heard me talk about her. She is a 4ft 11 ex teacher who lived a quarter of her life in Hong Kong teaching the children of the British army contingent out there. She is well travelled and despite her old age still very sharp and intelligent. She is also completely pickled by gin and smokes at least ten cigarettes a day. How she is still going is beyond me, medical science and all dietitians anywhere, ever. But I love her and wouldn't change her for the world. She loves crime thriller books and buys them by the boatload as she has a passion for reading that far outshines mine. Perhaps where I got mine from, maybe it'll get deeper the older I get. Who knows?
Anyways, the book is called Accused and is written by this guy (--->) Mark Gimenez. He is a Texas born, Notre Dame educated lawyer turned author. Now upon further research thanks to the Internet, I have realised Accused is actually a sequel (I did wonder why they kept mentioning his previous case so much) and this is a bit of a shame because now we already know the outcome to what would I'm sure have been a good read. My gran suggested the book to me, due to it's gruesome murder, exciting plot line and interesting read. Unknowingly to her, it was a better book fit for me than I expected. The book is about the murder of a golf pro which would've done me just fine but also the main character is a poor mans lawyer named Scott Fenney, who is highly intelligent and skilled. He starred at football as a running back at SMU but never made the pro's so used his intelligence to study law. The book details his defence of his ex-wife who is accused of the murder of the man she left Scott for. Owing a duty to his daughter, he seeks to prove his wife innocent. The book leaves plenty of red herrings but the answer that solves the case is highlighted a little bit too much for my liking. This allowed me to spot it earlier than I should have. Though the twist that comes towards the end is completely unexpected and makes the book all the better.After a slow start, I piled into this book and finished it in 4 days, reading the final 200 pages this morning as I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed reading it, and I'm hoping it starts another spell of frantic book reading for me. If it does, I will run out of books before the summer's end. My dads collection of books will take a hammering over the next few weeks. My gran may like her 3 gin's and multiple fags a day but she can't half pick a book!
