Unfit to Practice

Today's book review is Unfit to Practice by Perri O'Shaughnessy. This book falls into the Crime Fiction category in my books. Mainly because it is about crime and the main character in the book is a lawyer.

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First, let me start by saying going into this book, I figured it was going to be about a story where a lawyer is found unfit to practice and all that. It is .... but it isn't. HA! With that said, let me give you my summary of the book and a brief review.


The main characters in this book are:

• Nina Reilly - Lawyer
• Bob Reilly - Son to Nina
• Paul von Wagoner - Current Boyfriend
• Jack McIntyre - Ex-husband
• Cody Stinson - Murder Suspect
• Kevin Cruz - Defendant
• Angel Guillaume & Brandy Taylor - Sisters & Clients to Nina
• Sandy Whitefeather - Secretary to Nina
• Wish Whitefeather - Son of Sandy
• Officer Jean Scholl - Police Officer
• Lisa Cruz - Defendant's ex-wife
• Jeffrey Riesner - Prosecuting Attorney
• Dr. Mai - Vang's translator
• Mr & Mrs Vang - Store Owners & Clients of Nina
• Nikki Zack - Bob's girlfriend
• Phoebe Palladino - Murder victim
• Mario Lopez - Murder Suspect

A few minor characters include:

• Bruce Ford - Brandy's fiance
• Andrea & Matt - Nina's SIL and brother
• Kurt - Bob's father
• Ali Peck - Teen in Youth Cadet Program paired with Kevin Cruz in the past
• Marilyn Rose - Secretary for Heritage Insurance Company
• Carol Ames - Cody Stinson's on & off again girlfriend

Now, if you are looking for a simple summary of the book. Basically, Nina has lived a fairly dysfunctional life and law is her one constant. It brings normalcy to her. I would say that she has serious OCD and she needs to have control in one area for life to make sense. In addition, she does not work for a firm, so she often steps on the toes of those around her. Life is fine in her mind until the day when it isn't. She has three open cases when the crap hits the fan. The first case is a custody hearing during a divorce between Lisa Cruz and Kevin Cruz. Lisa and her lawyer both have it out for Nina, but Kevin has a mistake that troubles his ability to parent children. The second case is an insurance settlement for the Vangs after their store caught fire. As Nina works the case, she learns there is a lot more than what meets the eye and struggles to figure out the right path to go, especially when language is a barrier (forcing her to put complete trust in a man she does not know - Dr. Mai). Finally, the third case is brand new and is where two girls believe they witnessed the murder of Phoebe Palladino. The current suspect is Mario Lopez, but they saw Cody Stinson leaving the tent later that night.

The trouble comes when a storm picks up and Nina gets sloppy. She cannot remember where she left her truck key, and it is not with the rest of her keys when she gets to the vehicle in the pouring rain. Instead of re-tracing her steps like she normally would do, she used the spare to go home. She also took her briefcase home with the client-intake forms and a few other papers relating to the three cases. Everything is fine until she wakes the next morning and discovers that her truck is gone ... and so is the documentation. Things begin to get weird as people are starting to be notified about information in the case and all three cases end up going to the California Law Board to have her disbarred.

Nina, a lawyer, Paul, her boyfriend and PI, set out to find out who stole the files and how to minimize the damage. However, Paul enlists the help from Jack, Nina's ex, because he is the best lawyer defense attorney around. They begin to narrow down the prime suspects, but with the long list it is difficult. They keep rotating back to Jeanie Scholl, Jeffrey Reisner, and Kevin Cruz. They are not discounting anyone however, and the end is a surprise for everyone.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book. I am not a fan of the jumping around the timeline, but I am finding more and more authors do this. However, it is definitely a book that I would recommend to anyone who loves a good crime mystery. The female lead may have the assistance from two males, but she most definitely didn't require it. She was not portrayed as weak in any way, and much of that may be because the author is actually two sisters. It took me a few days to read, but if I had nothing else going on, it would have been a day book. Very easy to follow and I would probably say a reading level of upper high school. There is some graphic scenes depicted and a couple romance scenes. I would definitely be okay with my *almost* 13 year old daughter reading this book.

Again, if you would like to purchase the book yourself, click Unfit to Practice and get it on your Kindle App or paperback copy. Please note, this is an affiliate link, so if you choose to purchase through the links in this blog post, I may earn a few pennies (and I appreciate it).