(4 / 5)
This was the very first book I requested from NetGalley. I wasn’t sure if i was going to get accepted for any books because my blog was only tiny and I had absolutely no experience. However I think I got every book that I requested! So this book sat there on my shelf for a few months while I read more popular authors, bigger books. I often looked at it there and regretted requesting it. Knowing that I would have to read it to keep my percentage up. So the time finally came when I didn’t have any pressing book review deadlines and I thought I had better check out this totally unknown book with a cartoon cover that had a grand total of ONE review on goodreads…
Well… What an awesome surprise! I could barely put this book down – I thought it was fantastic!
Imagine, in beautiful Hawaii, a man is found dead, shot, decapitated and hacked apart at his house. Turns out he was an investment counselor who was doing some very shady deals, losing a lot of people a lot of money. So one of his clients gets arrested for the murder… Cue Pancho McMartin – A successful criminal defense attorney, to take on his case. Little does he know the can of worms he would open up by defending this man, the government conspiracies, and did his client actually do it or not!??
Now this is not an edge of your seat thriller type of novel like I was half expecting. Its power is in the courtroom. The trial scenes are fantastic! The author is a retired lawyer according to his goodreads page, and knows his stuff! The research was meticulous and I absolutely loved the courtroom dialogue and thought it was absolutely fantastic!
Pancho!!! What a wonderful character! So well written, I absolutely fell in love with him! Love how he is an extremely moral man in a typically amoral business! His best friend and PI Drew was fantastic! All the other characters were wonderful too.
I’ve never been to Hawaii, but the atmosphere Robinson creates in this book in fantastic! I almost felt like I was there looking at the beautiful beaches! Absolutely on my bucket list!
Tropical Lies was EXTREMELY well written! And easy to read. The courtroom scenes were written so that any legal novice (me) could understand everything that was happening. It did have periods where it moved a little slowly, but then it sped straight back up again!
And then to my absolute delight I saw that this is the first in a series with Pancho!! First thing I’m doing after publishing this review is requesting the second book! I cant wait to read about Pancho and the other characters again!
The only thing I really didn’t like about it was the cover. I believe its SO important to have a good cover, that represents the type of book it is. I didn’t feel this cover did the book justice. The cover, after all, is what people first see. It is more often than not, the deciding factor of whether people will read it or not.
Would I recommend it?
Yes! Its not a particularly edge-of-your-seat exciting book, but it’s a cleverly written courtroom crime drama with an extremely likable main character. Well done Mr Robinson, cracking read! My apologies for not getting to it sooner!
Thanks to the author via Netgalley for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
0 Comments