The Perfect Alibi: A Novel

The Perfect Alibi has a great protagonist in Robin Lockwood. She's interesting, tough, and doesn't settle for the easy answer. We start with a rape case that seems pretty cut and dried, but things aren't always exactly as they seem, and given the length of the book, I did expect things to go off the rails. What I didn't expect was for this story to take so many different paths. We have conspiracies, murders, rape, and misconduct all happening in rapid-fire succession and with the number of characters introduced, it all becomes convoluted. Some things do tie in together, but a lot of it is closer to degrees of separation than anything tied together - A guy goes to prison for rape, his lawyer may or may not be tied to a murder, the DA isn't the most ethical and might have reasons to want the lawyer out of the picture, then we have a mysterious bad guy lurking around for completely unrelated reasons. That's just the tip of the iceberg in this one, and the only thing that everything seems to have in common is that Robin is involved with most of it in one way or another. The author does tie everything up in the end, but the middle goes down so many avenues that it's all just more distracting than anything else. The book had the potential to be a great story with the twist in the rape case and a less than likable guy behind bars for the crime, one who may or may not be guilty. As it stands, there is just too much going on and much of it is way over the top. This one could certainly have done with a bit of the less is more adage. The saving grace of the story for me is Robin. I did enjoy reading how she figured things out, and I liked her self-assurance and willingness to go the extra mile.

Very. Well written.