Jessica is at a loss for an idea for her next novel, so her publisher, Vaughan Buckley, suggests that she set her next book during a court trial. Jessica demurrs, having no experience with the trial end of things, but then her old friend Malcolm McLoon calls and invites her to Boston to be a jury consultant on his latest case: the big-city trial of infamous trust fund baby William Brannigan, who's accused of murdering his elder brother for money.

Jessica agrees, and quickly finds herself enmeshed in the defense of Billy Brannigan, only for people connected to the trial to start dropping dead: first a star witness, then a juror, and then another juror. It's up to Jessica to figure out who's got it in for poor Billy Brannigan - and why - before more people connected to him end up dead.

This was a new read for me, one of the few early novels I hadn't read before. It is compulsively readable, and I finished it in what amounted to one sitting, but the plot is so outrageous that you could drive semi-trucks through it. I can't believe, even in 1996, that a prosecutor would bring such a flimsy case to trial as the one the state had against Billy Brannigan. There was no physical evidence, no DNA, no forensics, no murder weapon. All they had was a motive. Really? Especially in a high profile case, it's hard to believe that the state wouldn't have all of its ducks in a row before taking a shot at this.

Malcolm McLoon was a total slimeball, again making me wonder how or why Jessica ever put up with him as a friend (similar to [book:Rum & Razors|298501]). Billy Brannigan had basically zero personality, and what was there, was really stupid. I couldn't decide if he was a rich boy who was going to get off because of his money, or if he'd been framed because he was such an obvious(ly good) patsy. Turns out he did kill someone, it just wasn't his brother. Thomas McEnroe stuck out like a sore thumb from the start, and it quickly became obvious that Henry LeClaire was up to no good. How either of these two got past the jury selection is something you'll have to suspend major disbelief over, as is the fact that when Cynthia Warren was found dead, the police investigating the case didn't go over the personal papers laying scattered about in plain sight.

The plot doesn't hold up to even routine scrutiny, but there was a nice twist to the end, and Jessica was so obviously fed up with the whole court system, that I gave this an extra star.

Here are the canon inconsistencies that I spotted in this book:
*Jessica is referred to as J.D. Fletcher
*the Cabot Cove Spotlight is the local paper (as opposed to the Gazette)
*Jessica apparently has a passion for red geraniums to the point where she wanted to carry them as her bridal bouquet, and Frank used to shower her with them on a regular basis
*Mort claims to remember cases that Malcolm McLoon tried twenty years ago in Cabot Cove
*Jessica claims to have worked as an editor at a publishing house in Boston after graduating from college ( )