But Remember Their Names-Hillary Bell Locke

But Remember Their Names
Hillary Bell Locke
Poisoned Pen, Jul 5 2011, $24.95
ISBN 9781590589120

In 2008, Cynthia Jakubek graduated from Harvard Law School and anticipated a prestigious position at a Manhattan firm. However, the financial Great Recession delays the start of her career as most law firms are cutting experienced staff and not hiring new employees. Thus, she returns home to Pittsburgh where she accepts a job as an intern for defense attorney Luis Mendoza and lives with her widowed father.

At the Pittsburgh Museum of American History Museum, the body of sexagenarian philanthropist T. Colfax Bradshaw is found amidst a life-sized diorama of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington. The victim’s teenage daughter Caitlin hires Cynthia to represent her in a strange case that involves the 1995 theft of a painting valued at $500 million from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston.

This is an exciting legal thriller that looks deeply into the impact on the law by money, social class, race and religion as Hillary Bell Locke makes a powerful argument that justice is not blind only myopic. The two Cs (Cynthia and Caitlin) are wonderful characters who each bring youthful freshness to the lawyer-client relationship. With a terrific twist and a debate over whether the Pirates will reach .500%, readers will want more fast-paced thrillers starring the Pittsburgh lawyer.

Harriet Klausner