Reviews for The Devil Amongst the Lawyers [With Earbuds]

The average rating for The Devil Amongst the Lawyers [With Earbuds] based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-20 00:00:00 Tamatoa Wong Hen I enjoyed this book, but it provided proof to me that Sharyn McCrumb has perhaps peaked as a novelist (or that my taste in novels has changed over the years.) I think other parts of the series--The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter comes to mind--are more substantial. This was part of her Appachlachian series, and one of the best parts of the book for me was to read about Nora Bonesteel as a young girl. The meaning of the title wasn't especially clear, though I guess the devils were the big-city journalists. A strength of the novel was its ability to stimulate my thinking about what is truth and how would be know it. I'd never thought before of a trial being a chess game. McCrumb did a good job of making the reader doubt journalism; if she is correct about her depictions of journalists in 1935, then duping the public has been part of their job for nearly a century now. Innocently, I'd been thinking that journalism has just recently reached new lows. I looked up a bit of the history of the real murderer, if indeed she committed the crime. She was released from prison after serving only four years. I kept wondering if preventing incest with her younger sister might have been motivation for the murder. I read this book for a book club and then couldn't go to the meeting. Darn it!

Review # 2 was written on 2010-04-27 00:00:00 John Ezra Schulman I have been a Sharyn McCrumb fan since I read "Bimbos of the Death Sun" many years ago. I loved her Elizabeth MacPherson novels, but (like so many of her fans), no character captured me quite like Nora Bonesteel. In "The Devil Amongst the Lawyers," Nora Bonesteel is a 12-year-old girl, going to help her journalist cousin Carl report on a murder trial. Nora has the Sight, and Carl hopes the girl can provide him with some insight since the defendant, Erma, is not allowed to talk to any reporters who have not paid her brother for the privilege. Nora's part is not large in this book; a great deal of the action focuses on two New York reporters and their photographers coming to the tiny Appalachian town to report their views on the matter. Nora's observations to one of the reporters about his past are included to provide an entree to his back story. As always, McCrumb creates a fascinating portrait of life in the Appalachians -- this time during the Great Depression. It's great to see the "Ballad Series" return. Fans of McCrumb and Bonesteel are sure to be pleased. (Review based on uncorrected advance proof.)