Open Season on Lawyers is a mystery thriller in which serial murder of lawyers becomes poetic justice. How many of us have cringed when celebrity killers walk, when manipulated juries vote outrageous awards, when sleazy shysters screw the little guy? Vicarious relief is at hand in this entertaining and intelligent crime novel.
LAPD Detective Joanna Davis investigates the death of Lawrence Benton, an attorney made famous by winning a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a fast food chain whose coffee caused third-degree burns to a customer with Parkinson’s Disease. (This case echoes the real-life judgment against McDonald’s, where the plaintiff was originally awarded $2.7 million.) In Open Season on Lawyers Benton is found dead—parboiled—in his hot tub. This is only one of a series of pointed, almost witty murders of attorneys by a serial killer the media call the Atterminator. The reader will have difficulty not rooting for this clever, efficient murderer, whose meticulous preparations and many disguises and aliases are reminiscent of those of the assassin in The Day of the Jackal.
However, Detective Joanna Davis is an immensely sympathetic opponent, an experienced professional in midlife at the top of her powers, with a true commitment “to protect and serve.” Her dogged detection and perseverance ultimately bring her to a face-to-face confrontation with the Atterminator—with an ironic outcome that further defines poetic justice. As BookBrowser said, “Open Season on Lawyers is a page-turner with depth and wit…the humor is wry, dry, and never forced…. A magical combination of tale-spinning and character development…one heck of a good novel.”
Taffy Cannon lives with her daughter and attorney husband in southern California. She is the author of seven novels, including the Nan Robinson series about an investigator for the State Bar. She has also written an Academy Award-nominated comedy short subject. Cannon’s travel mystery, Guns and Roses (Perseverance/John Daniel), was short-listed for the Agatha and the Macavity Awards for Best Novel in 2000.
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