Review: The Guilty Plea

Guilty Plea by Robert Rotenberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the story of a murder trial from the point of view of the lawyers (mostly) and was excellent. Detective Ari Greene is also part of it and is an intriguing character who I liked in Old City Hall. There were a lot of neighborhood details about different parts of Toronto as well. I'm looking forward to the next Rotenberg novel.

This is book 11/13 for the Canadian Book Challenge.

Happy Canada Day!

I made it to maple syrup!
I completed the 6th Annual Canadian Book Challenge, hosted by the Book Mine Set. Here is my list of 13 books by or about Canadians:

The Merry Heart by Robertson Davies
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery *
Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
Twenty-six by Leo McKay, Jr. *
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
Generation X by Douglas Coupland
A Short History of Canada by Desmond Morton
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
The Kids' Book of Canada by Barbara Greenwood
Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg
The Salterton Trilogy by Robertson Davies
I am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

* Thanks to my friend Lisa for lending me these books!

Review: Old City Hall

Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The setting of this mystery/thriller is Toronto and the author includes a lot of local history and information about the city which I thought really added a lot to the novel. The book begins with profiles of the lawyers and police officers, and a few other folks, then moves into the investigation. The point of view switches among the various investigators so as the book goes on you only know as much about the crime as the investigative team does. Overall I thought this was an effective way to present the story, but it made the ending where we had to get the background on all the people involved in the crime a bit dense.

Overall I thought this was a good book, my only quibble with it was the "chase" scene toward the end where someone is racing to the courthouse with information that will prevent a miscarriage of justice. It was overdone and ridiculous. The author is a Canadian attorney and was his first novel. I look forward to reading more of his books.