Long Knives

I read this book through the Kindle First program. It is a sequel to [b:Death on a High Floor|20642026|Death on a High Floor|Charles Rosenberg|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1390835675s/20642026.jpg|39933286], which I have not read. I gave the book three stars for the entertaining and well-paced mystery. I only gave it three stars because it didn't amount to much more than that. The story centers on Jenna James, a high-powered-attorney-turned-law-professor at UCLA. Ms. James is on the cusp of earning tenure until a student mysteriously falls ill during a meeting with her and subsequently dies. She becomes the main suspect in his death, but she comes to believe that she was the intended target of the real killer. Jenna is a decent main character: smart, capable, and blunt at just the right moments. I cared about what happened to her, found her amusing, believed (mostly) in her relationships with other characters, and enjoyed following her train of thought as she fit the pieces together. This book reminded me of the Alphabet Mysteries by Sue Grafton, if Kinsey Millhone had email instead of an answering service. The story is told in a straightforward first-person voice and basically in real-time. You experience the story's events and learn clues at the same pace as the main characters. Occasionally the narration switches to the point-of-view of Jenna's legal mentor, who she enlists in her defense. This might have been more significant to my enjoyment of the story if I had read the first book, but it felt a little bit tacked on for me. There isn't a lot of action in terms of car chases or fist fights, more legal procedure and academic jargon. That didn’t bother me, but it depends on what you like. You also won't find much in terms of a love angle, if that's what you're looking for. There is a romantic element, but I found it to be fairly anemic and a bit beside-the-point, in terms of how it fit in with the main story line. There was an obvious slate of suspects, but the author kept me (mostly) guessing about the killer’s identity until the end. I gave the book three stars because it was light and interesting enough to keep me reading. It was a fun book to power through in a weekend. However, it wasn’t distinctive enough in either the plot or the writing to earn more than three stars.