James Scott Bell Reviews

Page One

Added April 11, 2005

City of Angels

The Shannon Saga

Author: James Scott Bell
Publisher: Bethany House
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: January 2001
Genre: Fiction: Christian/Legal/Historical
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 0764224182
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

It's 1903. Kathleen (Kit) Shannon has ventured alone from New York to California with her heart set on practicing law. Though women in California could practice law, few did. The idea of a woman having the same intelligence and skill as a male attorney seemed ludicrous. The law was mans realm. Finding a law firm to sponsor a woman ready to take the bar exam was near impossible. Regardless, Kit is a fighter. If anything, her tough childhood reared her for such an ambitious and challenging future.

Kit's mother and father, a pastor, died when she was young. Raised in a convent by a tyrant nun had forced Kit to form calluses around her being. In learning to deal with the ways in which the nun treated her, Kit was essentially training, or preparing for a future into which she would emerge stronger and more convicted than most. Armed with her father's well-used Bible, she planned to take the field of law by storm, representing the poor and subjugated.

Agreeing to stay in the home of her aunt, a wealthy aristocrat-like woman, Kit thinks she has the support of her only living relative. However, Kit's aunt's intentions are clearly to discourage her niece from practicing law. Considering the profession foolish for a woman (and dangerous to her own elite standings in society-what would people think of her of Kit became a lawyer? Scandalous!) she plans to marry off the beautiful twenty-three year old New Yorker. In throwing a party for her niece, where Kit is introduced to one eligible bachelor after another, she expects to find just the right husband. Perhaps, against her better judgment, finds herself attracted to a man obsessed with creating a machine that flies; a glider with an engine. But that's not the worst part, he is also engaged to be married.

After a terrible job interview with one of the city's most prominent prosecutors, Kit is discouraged to the point of giving up on her dream. That is until she witnesses the law in action. Defense attorney, Earl Rogers, works magic in the courtroom, introducing drama and action. And to Kit's surprise, offers her a job.

All the while a serial killer is at large. His prey tends to be prostitutes working street corners. Once captured, it is up to Kit Shannon to prove his innocence. It is her job to prove to a jury that the police have arrested and accused the wrong man. It is her job to work diligently to get the man off. But is her client innocent or guilty? Does it matter? What would God think? Is it justice if her client is actually guilty and she gets an acquittal from the jury?

As a huge fan of both James Scott Bell and Tracie Peterson, I am excited to have finally gone back and read the first in a wonderful series. The Shannon Saga, and the Trials of Kit Shannon, are legal thrillers with class. Historically set, these legal battles take place in a time when the rules of discovery were different than today-a time when surprise witnesses, and new evidence could be introduced for the "Ah-ha!" factor-allowing the pleasure of anticipating the element of surprise.

This tightly knit, well-crafted story is packed full of genuine, deep and real characters. There is a web of suspense that is impossible not to get snared in. The tension and suspense and frustration are on overdrive. Peterson and Bell have managed to create a series that is timeless. The elements of conflict, struggle, and faith are no different now than they were 100 hundred years ago.

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Added April 11, 2005

Deadlock

Author: James Scott Bell
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: October 2002
Genre: Fiction: Christian/Legal/Thriller
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 0310243882
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

James Scott Bell's Deadlock is more than a fast-paced legal drama. It probes at more than legal, moral and ethical issues. It does more than tell a story. Deadlock is a powerful, emotional and thoughtful novel. The characters are well crafted, the scenes well plotted, and the over all effect-overwhelming.

Millicent Hollander is a tough judge. Her consistent rulings and written decisions are strong and persuasive. When a case stands before her on issues like abortion, most can foretell how the verdict will be rendered. She is almost a cold, godless woman.

Charlene Moore is an African American attorney, trying to right a wrong. Her teenage client has undergone an abortion that has inflicted mental pain and suffering in her client. The complaint states that the clinic that performed the surgery failed to inform the young lady of all the side effects an abortion might create. Though Moore is confident she will prevail, getting the courts to see things her way is all together another story.

When Hollander is offered a historical position as the first female Chief Justice on the Supreme Court, things could not be any better. That is until she is almost raped by a person she trusted. As she makes her escape through the city park, a homeless man confronts her. She stumbles into the street and is struck by a car. She flatlines.

Returning to her hometown to recover, Hollander gets closer with her mother. Her mother is a very religious woman who spends a lot of time praying for her daughter. The local pastor dedicates his time to make Hollander feel more at home. His timing is perfect, since the near death experience has Hollander trying to figure out the meaning of life, forcing her to evaluate her own beliefs and morals as they were before the accident occurred.

Those in power, corrupt and reasonably heartless, who manipulated Hollander to the Chief Justice position learn of Hollander's newfound religion and fear her stable and sound judicial rulings will become unpredictable and dangerous to the Constitution and the American people, plot to get her removed from her position. As Hollander realizes truths about her life that frighten her more she ever thought could be possible. What faces her now is a choice.

Deadlock is enlightening and amazing. James Scott Bell is a powerful storyteller. This book, like many of his others, is wholesome and magical. Deadlock is a religious book that forces Hollander, as well as the reader, to take notice and into account the only possible truth. In a word, Powerful.

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