A Very Simple Crime

A Very Simple Crime by Grant Jerkins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A wealthy woman is killed and all signs point to her mentally disturbed son. Disgraced attourney Leo Hewitt uncovers new evidence pointing to the woman's unhappy husband. Can Leo help the DA's office put him away?



I won this book in a Firstreads giveaway and didn't realize it was a legal thriller. Yawn city, right? Well, it turned out to be a lot better than the dreary courtroom drama I was expecting.



Jerkins uses shifting viewpoints to his advantage. Adam Lee, the suspect, has his part of the story told in the first person while the rest is told in the third person, primarily from the point of view of Leo Hewitt. This works to Jerkins' advantage. While I was pretty sure what was going on from the beginning, he had me doubting myself quite a few times.



The characters were well drawn, in my opinion. Leo's desire to regain his lost position was fairly powerful. Monty Lee seemed like a douchebag attourney and Paula's drive to get to the top was also pretty convincing. Adam Lee, the conflicted suspect, was both sympathetic and repugnant at the same time. Plumbing his past was good for some foreshadowing of the future.



The story was a page turner. I kept waiting for pieces of evidence to surface or be tossed out. I thought I knew what the final twist was going to be but I wound up being off by a few degrees.



While this book didn't change my views on legal thrillers, it was definitely worth a few hours of reading. Recommended for when you need a quick read with some twists.



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