Review: Truth is often stranger than fiction
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2013
I was gifted this book for an honest review.I started reading this book expecting it to be realistically life like since it was based on a true story. It started out realistically enough with the explanation of how the whole situation started. After that it became a bit difficult to swallow. I don't know if it is because I have a background in Criminal Justice, but after the beginning of the story, the rest of it became a bit difficult to swallow.The notion that she was being tracked and followed by Town Cars kicked it into the realm of difficult to believe for me. Government agencies use Suburban's, Crown Vics, and Chargers. These are middle of the road, discreet vehicles. They use these to blend in while doing surveillance. They most assuredly do not have the budget to use Town Cars, or have fleets of them. Those would fall more into the politician's choice of vehicles, those and limos.The next part was about her impending arrest and incarceration. She sure didn't seem to take getting an attorney very seriously. I know there are expensive lawyers out there, but there are also decent ones. It seems to me she just gave up her search after the first interview. It really bothered me that she did so little on her on behalf.Some of the story of her incarceration was well written and believable. Unfortunately, the farther I got into the story it seemed to become a series of trite note comparisons.  "What are you in for?"  "What am I in for?"  "We both had stinky attorneys!"  All that became a bit tiresome, plus everyone just about claimed they were innocent. It reminded me of the old saying, "There are no guilty people in prison."Just when I was ready to believe in her innocence, she admits she was guilty. That kind of set me back a bit. The addition of the jail house law clerk seemed to offer some promise of some action, but became an anti-climatic addition, as did her decision not to pursue another appeal.I feel like the story started out fine and stalled somewhere in the middle. It is a shame because it had lots of potential to go many different directions.  It seemed to hodge-podge its way to the end. I kept hoping it would pick up, but alas it did not.I gave this story 3 out of 5 stars.