PRIVILEGED WITNESS (legal thriller, thriller) (The Witness Series, #3) [Kindle Edition]

If you've read the author's last two novels, you'll know that Josie moved to Hermosa Beach some time back in order to pursue a quiet life as a lawyer, having given up high-profile (and high-income) criminal defense cases after a client she got acquitted went out and murdered someone else. Despite the best of intentions, though, she keeps finding herself in the spotlight of cases such as this one, which - among other things - will help determine the next Senator from California. As usual, Josie doesn't know what's she's getting into at first. When Grace McCreary comes to ask her for help, she is led to believe that the cops are suspicious of Matthew's possible involvement in his wife's death. It's rather a surprise to her when Grace is arrested for murder. Things only go downhill from there, as Josie is constantly blindsided by truths her client's family neglected to mention to her, the political maneuvering going on behind the scenes to save McCreary's crumbling senatorial campaign from ruin, a whole snake pit of McCreary family secrets, and her dangerous tendency to sometimes think with her heart rather than her head in this case.

Josie was not the right lawyer to defend Grace McCreary; her latent feelings for her former lover color some of her decisions and actions - and she's not the only one who stands to get hurt as events unfold. There's also a mad, cowardly, sore loser of a wife-beater out there threatening revenge against his ex-wife and her lawyer, which puts Josie as well as those closest to her in danger. Forster works this secondary storyline into the overall novel extremely well, I must say. Only the most remarkable of women could hold up under all the strain Josie faces from all directions over the course of this novel. There are really just a lot of things going on all at once here, and the drama of so many fateful characters really takes precedence over the legal aspects of the crime itself. You won't find a shocking courtroom climax at the end of this story, as it's far too tragic to end in such a commonplace manner. Forster is really expanding the boundaries of her fiction with this effort, and the result is her most memorable novel to date.