Review: By Leselyst
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 13, 2014
An excellent series of five thrillers!My introduction to Joe Dillard came through the first novel, An Innocent Client, and I enjoyed it immensely.  A travelling preachers is found dead in a motel room and a young waitress at a local drinking establishment is charged with the murder.  The manager of this somewhat disreputable bar is a middle-aged southern gal who develops lasting friendships with many of the regulars and several these gentlemen have come to respect her as well.  When necessary, they help each other; no strings attached.  This was an intelligent novel and I enjoyed the development as it took us through the court system.  Five stars!This novel prompted me to buy the series and I am glad I did!The second novel, In Good Faith, tested the scope of reality as the paranormal raged through the gristly murder of a family of four.  In this novel we become a bit more familiar with Joe Dillard's family and his own shortcomings. He has a bad temper and he acts irrationally at times.  I learned to like him, though, and I developed respect for Caroline, his wife. I met his local sheriff, Leon Bates, and the two complement each other though Bates has greater finesse in his strategies.  He is also politically astute, something Dillard is not.Number three, Injustice for All is a multilayered mystery.  After a horrendous court scene, a judge is murdered on his own property.  Because the body was burned, the area around the body contained little evidence.  To make matters worse for the forensic experts, any tracks that may have been at the scene were washed away in the ensuing rain storm.  Joe Dillard, however, must now look at the possibility that his colleague's son could have been involved.  Again, a very intense novel, tightly written.Reasonable Fear is the fourth novel and adds another level of corruption, the Colombian mafia and their hired assassins. Dillard has been promoted and the political pressure that comes with the job tests his equilibrium.  He makes unpopular decisions and his extended family is targeted by the mafia.  They have no choice but to go into hiding.  This time Sheriff Bates tells Dillard that he has gone too far.  Very riveting and almost impossible to put down!Novel number five is Conflict of Interest. A couple's only child is kidnapped and the parents want Dillard to represent them but this becomes impossible. No perpetrator is found and the FBI charge the father with the abduction.  The wife sues for divorce.  Mr. Munroe is imprisoned and his assets are seized.  At the preliminary hearing Joe Dillard is dismissed.  Beneath this complex development, however, are two additional strands of tensions and Pratt handles them all in a most interesting way.  Tension is tight and the reader becomes desperate in his search for the solutions.  Great writing!OK, so there were a few spelling mistakes, and a few homonyms were misplaced, but by and large these were lost in the tension of the novels.I am now starting number six: Blood Money.