Fledgling Lawyer Linnet Ellery is fresh from Radcliffe and Yale when she joins the prestigious firm Ishmael, McGillary and Gold. She has the chops but the sole reason she got the position was the friendship Shade Shadrach Ishmael has with her foster father, the eminent vampire liege Meredith Bainbridge.
She is determined to shine but that may have to wait a bit. Her first task is to support attorney Chip Weston with the Abercrombie case, one that has dragged on in arbitration for seventeen years. Any other clients would have seized the generous settlement offered by the werewolf-owned multimillion dollar security firm but Chip's client is all about revenge.
One late night while Linnet is digging through seventeen years worth of paperwork a werewolf invades the sanctified walls of the firm, attacking and killing Chip Weston before Linnet can go for help. It is only through merest chance and an odd twist of luck that she was not killed as well. The Abercrombie case is the only one Chip Weston has worked on for years. What could have changed enough to cost him his life? Linnet must find out before she becomes the next victim.
Phillipa Bornikova has created a top-notch urban fantasy novel, the first in a new series. She combines the intricacies of law with tons of action. The main character Linnet must think her way through the complex puzzle left by the murder of her boss with death breathing down her neck. The companion characters, especially Private Investigator John O'Shea, an Alfar (elf) raised as human, are richly drawn and provide a great deal of meat to the storyline. Bornikova has provided plenty of fodder for the next book with a skillful conclusion balancing resolution of the first book's story while providing a really great set up for book two.
What happens when The Firm meets Anita Blake? You get
the Halls of Powerβour modern world, but twisted. Law,
finance, the military, and politics are under the sway of
long-lived vampires, werewolves, and the elven Alfar. Humans
make the best of rule by βthe Spooks,β and contend among
themselves to affiliate with the powers-that-be, in order to
avoid becoming their prey. Very loyal humans are rewarded
with power over other women and men. Very lucky humans are
selected to join the vampires, werewolves, and elvesβor, on
occasion, to live at the Seelie Court.
Linnet Ellery is the offspring of an affluent Connecticut
family dating back to Colonial times. Fresh out of law
school, sheβs beginning her career in a powerful New York
βwhite fangβ law firm. She has high hopes of eventually
making partner.
But strange things keep happening to her. In a workplace
where some humans will eventually achieve immense power and
centuries of extra lifespan, office politics can be vicious
beyond belief. After some initial missteps, she finds
herself sidelined and assigned to unpromising cases. Then,
for no reason she can see, she becomes the target of
repeated, apparently random violent attacks, escaping injury
each time through increasingly improbable circumstances.
However, thereβs apparently more to Linnet Ellery than a
little old-money human privilege. More than even she knows.
And as she comes to understand this, sheβs going to shake up
the system like you wouldnβt believeβ¦
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