Lily Cleary is a germ phobic lawyer who works at the firm
of Smith, O'Leary and Stanley in Sarasota, Florida. She is
dying to get her hands on a medical malpractice case
because they really bring in the big bucks. But instead of
a juicy case with doctors, Lily is handed a juicy case
involving oranges. Two environmentalists named Angus and
Miguel are being sued by Delilah Groves for making
statements about their oranges possibly being contaminated
with dangerous chemicals.
Lily tries her best to dig up dirt for her clients'
defense. In the meantime, Jimmie, Lily's 80 year old
gardener/live in house guest, has his own case for her to
fight. After a minor car accident, someone is suing Jimmy
for their supposed aches and pains. Can Lily prove that
the plaintiff is not hurt and just trying to take
advantage of an unfortunate incident?
When one of Lily's defendants ends up dead, she realizes
her simple case of oranges is more then it seems. There is
a severe environmental problem and it seems someone is
willing to kill to cover it up. Is Miguel, the crazy sexy
environmentalist, to blame for his friend's untimely
death?
Lily's boyfriend Phillip is looking to get more serious
with her. He wants marriage but Lily can't seem to commit.
Will Miguel steal Lily away from Phillip and get her
involved in a case that can become deadly?
Someone is killing the endangered wildlife and trying to
cover up the phosphate problem that is going to end up
polluting the waters. Will Lily be able to solve this case
and find the bad guys without getting herself killed?
BONE VALLEY was an entertaining mystery with environmental
themes. The characters were eccentric and brought some
light humor to the important phosphate issues presented
throughout the book. The action and suspense was
enjoyable, but the environmental talk was overkill for my
tastes. The conclusion is summed up in one chapter and a
bit too neatly for believability. I was bored by the
environment issues which are the main theme of BONE
VALLEY. I wouldn't recommend this book to die hard
mystery fans.
In her never-ending quest to log more billable hours,
Sarasota lawyer Lilly Cleary agrees to defend Angus and
Miguel, two fervent environmentalists who are being sued for
libeling . . . an orange! In the Sunshine State,
people take their citrus seriously—and there are powerful
interests that refuse to sit idly by while a pair of
whistle-blowing rabble rousers demean Florida's main cash
crop.
Though the orange affair isn't quite the
juicy case Lilly was looking for, it gets a lot stickier
when one of the defendants is blown to bits right in front
of her. Not one to take losing a case—or a client—lightly,
whole-grain-loving, toxin-phobic Lilly will stop at nothing
to get to the truth behind this and assorted other related
murders. Which won't be easy, since everyone is
lying—including the surviving environmentalist, who just
happens to have an advanced degree from the University of
the Streets . . . in bomb-making.