Synopses & Reviews
There’s one corpse too many in a Pittsburgh museum’s life-size diorama of the Battle of Lexington, 1775. The extra body is that of philanthropist and art connoisseur T. Colfax Bradshaw. But why? None of the $500 million in fine art stolen from Boston’s Isabella Gardner Museum in 1995 has ever been recovered. Maybe he knew to much about the biggest art heist in history.
When their daughter Caitlin seeks legal advice, newly minted lawyer Cynthia Jakubec finds herself representing the teen. Jakubec aches to jump from Main Street to Wall Street but is stuck interning for ace Pittsburgh attorney Luis Mendoza while she waits for her future New York employer to recover from the Great Recession. Or for her fiancé to finish his post-modern novel….
Protecting Caitlin will take Jakubec from a ghetto church in Pittsburgh to a confessional at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the opulent Manhattan office where she hopes to trade street law for suite law. Along the way she’ll meet people who carry guns on the job and she’ll pick up a broken nose and a broken heart for her trouble. She didn’t fire the first shot at Pittsburgh’s Battle of Lexington display, but she’ll have to decide whether or not to fire the last....
Review
"Locke, herself a lawyer, convincingly depicts nuances of class, race, and the law. Her heroine's strong first-person voice bodes well for future Cynthia Jakubek outings." —Publishers Weekly
"A good read from a first-time writer who uses her education and background in law to her advantage—and to the reader’s overall satisfaction." —New York Journal of Books
"Cyn, with her family, fiancé, boss, clients, and colleagues, is so likable, readers will consider her an imaginary friend." —Booklist
Synopsis
Six colonists were killed at the Battle of Lexington, but just before Thanksgiving the life-size diorama of that battle at the Pittsburgh Museum of American History has seven bodies. Thomas Bradshaw, a prominent Pittsburgh connoisseur, has been murdered, and Cynthia Jakubec will be drawn into one of the sideshows surrounding the investigation. Jakubec is a working-class kid who's about to jump from Main Street to Wall Street (and marry a budding novelist) on the strength of her Harvard Law School degree when the Great Recession in the fall of 2008 puts her dream on hold. She finds herself temporarily (she hopes) working as a legal intern at a Pittsburgh firm that does "street law" instead of "suite law" -- including representation of a Bradshaw's daughter, who may be a material witness (or worse). The trail will lead from a black church in Pittsburgh's ghetto to the very luxury building in mid-town Manhattan where Jakubec dreams of working, with a broken nose and a broken heart along the way. Before her Wall Street dream is again within her grasp, Jakubec will come to appreciate Robert F. Kennedy's memorable advice: "Forgive your enemies -- but remember their names."
Synopsis
There's one corpse too many in a Pittsburgh museum's life-size diorama of the Battle of Lexington, 1775. The extra body is that of philanthropist and art connoisseur T. Colfax Bradshaw. But why? Maybe he knew too much about the biggest art heist in history. And what did Bradshaw's wife Ariane know? When their daughter Caitlin seeks legal advice, newly minted lawyer Cynthia Jakubek finds herself representing the teen. Jakubek aches to jump from Main Street to Wall Street but is stuck interning for ace Pitts-burgh attorney Luis Mendoza while she waits for her future New York employer to recover from the Great Recession. Or for her fiance to finish his post-modern novel.... Protecting Caitlin will take Jakubek from a ghetto church in Pittsburgh to a confessional at St. Patrick's Cathedral to the opulent Manhattan office where she hopes to trade street law for suite law. Along the way she'll meet people who carry guns on the job and she'll pick up a broken nose and a broken heart for her trouble. She didn't fire the first shot at Pittsburgh's Battle of Lexington display, but she'll have to decide whether or not to fire the last....
About the Author
Hillary Bell Locke graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, worked for a prominent New York law firm, and now practices law in a city far from New York--but not under that name.