Monday, January 7, 2008
A Trial of One
A Trial of One: The Third in the Osgoode Trilogy by Mary E. Martin
It takes a truly talented writer to manage a series that can be picked up in the third book and still understandable. I am thrilled to report that this author doesn't disappoint. While I still recommend that the first two books are read before the third, the story is definitely readable and has enough back story integrated for the reader to follow the plot line without undue effort.
The story line follows Attorney Harry Jenkins as he struggles to unravel the confusing absence of Elixicorp Enterprises stock worth over thirty million dollars for his client Norma Dinnick. Mr. Jenkins is declared the legal guardian of Norma in a previous installment of the Osgoode Trilogy when she is deemed mentally unfit and placed in a mental hospital. The mystery of the stock is harder to unravel because she is lucid some of the time and "out of it" the rest.
To complicate matters, a Dr. Robert Hawke claims to be curing Alzheimer's disease and demands the shares were purchased for his research. Dr. Hawke is the third person who claimed the shares. The other two died earlier in the series. Dr. Hawke, though, seems more dangerous and less stable than the others. How far will this man go to ensure he gets the money?
Harry Jenkins ends up traveling to several places in Europe while hunting down the shares. What he doesn't know is that he is being hunted during his trip. Dr. Hawke sends people to watch Harry and try to get the shares before Harry can claim them and put them out of Dr. Hawke's reach.
Through it all, the widow of Richard Crawford, one of the gentlemen that died in the previous book, decides that her husband was murdered after she finds his secret diary talking about a mysterious woman named Q and feeling ill. She approaches Harry Jenkins and asks for his help unraveling this mystery.
I am impressed with the writing style and the general flow of the mystery. This trilogy is worth the time to read and I hope to see more from Mary E. Martin!
