A lawyer in France presents herself to handle the usual type of case - poor communication between a man and a woman having led to an accusation of violence. Returning to her office, Catherine Monsigny is asked to look more deeply into the issue of a woman accused of killing her husband. It's the first serious crime she has handled, and THE PARIS LAWYER is keen.

Catherine has occasional flashes of memory of herself as a child in a stroller, on the day that her mother took her out for a walk and was beaten to death. Her father has walled off that part of their lives. In the current felony case, an illegal immigrant woman from Gabon was treated as a slave by a family, but escaped them and married a wealthy older man. Six years later he died and his family, outraged by the widow's intention to sell the rural estate, accused her of poisoning him by adding cyanide to the curries she cooked. Cyanide was then found in the body. Catherine experiences the change from city to country life as she visits the accused, with basic facilities and local foods. Returning to her Paris work, she takes pride in getting a client off on a procedural technicality; but the rural case won't be so easy and what's more, she has suspicions that not one but two murders are involved.

The European legal court system is different from the British and American system. There are no juries and the judge trying the case has the power to order investigations. I also noted that this lawyer spends a lot of her time defending a Tunisian pickpocket or a Moroccan thief instead of the expected French clients.

This is written in present tense and translated from the French by Anne Trager. Some Americanisms such as gotten have been included but some nuances must have been lost - "There are never any papers on the boss' desk because the mind of a great man contains all the information it needs." This may have originally been an amusing comment on the boss' pompous attitude but we don't get enough information to decide. Catherine also comes across as masculine, thinking establish dominance from the start, impose a power struggle and stainless steel morale. Sylvie Granotier is a pen name and THE PARIS LAWYER was written by Albin Michel, a complex tale of a woman facing unpleasant truths.