Melissa F Miller: Informed Consent

Twins and a twin storyline
This is the first Sasha MacIndless story since the birth of her twins, Finn and Fiona. She has just started work again two months after the birth leaving Leo as househusband caring for the twins. Fortunately, his job isn't demanding at the moment. He is great around the house and delivers the twins to Sasha's office at feeding time.

Sasha finds herself involved in a pretty unbelievable story where a medical researcher trying to find a cure for dementia is harvesting brain tissue from people in her testing program when they die without their "informed consent". The researcher is involved with a shady and dangerous equity capital group that are funding her research.

For years, Leo has been looking for his Vietnamese father who he has never met. One day, out of the blue, a messenger calls telling him that there is a man in Maine who has information about his father. When Leo meets him he is faced with one of the most difficult personal decisions he has ever had to make. The conclusion was emotional and unexpected.

I felt that this book was lacking some of the easy going sparkles of Sasha's previous adventures. Maybe the sparkles will come back when the twins are toddlers - but then Leo may be looking after more babies....

Melissa F Miller: A Mingled Yarn: A Sasha McCandless Novella Book 7.5

Always expect the unexpected with Sasha
This is a short novella for followers of Sasha McCandless and Leo Connelly as a bridge between her many adventures as a legal trouble magnet. In her last novella Melissa F Miller covered their marriage, an very eventful affair. This time she covers the last days of Sasha's pregnancy, so what could go wrong there?

Sasha is a little cranky at her size and the effect on her very small body - someone even suggests that her shoe size will increase after the birth and make her vast wardrobe of stilettos (a necessary thing for such a small woman) useless. Connelly is becoming increasingly anxious for her safety and tries to get her OK to bring a handgun into the new house to protect her. Sasha is at a very intense stage and when she believes that she may be in danger again even calls on her Krav Maga self defence trainer to allow her to practice her skills, even in her very pregnant state.

The last thing that Sasha believes is that her life will change irrevocably when the birth is over - of course Sasha is in for big surprises.

What I really like about this novella is that it isn't too closely packaged with promotions for the next full book. This is a short, simple and interesting interlude to bring readers who have read earlier books up to date on another milestone in Sasha's life. It is not a starting point for the series.

Melissa F Miller: Irrefutable Evidence

Another interesting adventure for Sasha McCandless
This book runs almost the full gamut of things that we expect in a Sasha McCandless legal thriller. She gets dragged into unexpected trouble through her legal work, and finishes up relying on her Krav Maga skills to protect herself.

Sasha's husband Leo Connelly calls Sasha a "trouble magnet" and is overjoyed that no one has tried to kill them for seven months. Just as he is planning a romantic one-year wedding anniversary holiday in Fiji over Christmas, trouble strikes again as Sasha discovers a link to a huge arson-for-money fire insurance scam. The link is very important because the scam is master-minded by an important Mafia leader that the US Attorney has wanted to catch for years. It is especially dangerous to FBI agent Nino Carlucci, successfully under cover as driver for Peaches from the powerful Manetto crime family.

This is another easy reading, and mostly satisfying tale in the exciting lives of Sasha and Leo which probably ended a bit to soon for me. It is a quick read and some may even finish it in one session. The finale was one I had expected for some time which will add another dimension in the future to Sasha's already very complex life.

PS I still don't understand what Leo Connelly really does now that he has left the Federal Marshall service.

Melissa F Miller: Irrevocable Trust (Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller Book 6)

Another easy-reading Sasha McCandless legal thriller
I have read several of the Sasha McCandless legal thrillers by Melissa F Miller and have found them easy-reading, and well written. I enjoyed them despite some unbelievable plots.

Sasha McCandless and Leo Connelly have just started to settle down to everyday life after their exciting wedding (see A MARRIAGE OF TWO MINDS) where prison escapee Jeffrey Bricker hired two thugs to kill her on her wedding day to revenge her recent success stopping him releasing a killer flu that would have brought the US to its knees. 

Bricker is still on the run and a danger to Sasha and his wife and six children who have made a new life under the witness protection system. The threat becomes greater when his wife Allison is murdered and Bricker is the prime suspect. Allison leaves Sasha an Irrevocable Trust that gives her a responsibility in the future lives of her children and puts all of them in increased danger from Bricker.

What follows is an exciting and nail-biting game of cat and mouse between Bricker, Sasha, Leo and fellow agent Hank about the future of Bricker's family. Leo has always called Sasha "A trouble magnet" and this time the magnet affects the life of six orphaned children.

While this couldn't be classified as literary fiction, it is a good exciting page-turning read from a talented Indie author who is quickly making a name for herself in the field of US legal thrillers.There is an interesting twist in the tale that might have a huge impact on Sasha and Leo's future lives.

Melissa F Miller: Critical Vulnerability: (A Sasha McCandless Companion Novel)

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Another gutsy heroine from Melissa Miller
This is another entertaining page-turning legal thriller from Melissa F Miller, featuring a new gutsy legal "heroine" Aroostine Higgins. While the title says that it is a Sasha McCandless companion novel, it is clear that Miller is testing the water for an Aroostine Higgins series.

Aroostine is a junior Assistant US Attorney working in the Department of Justice's Criminal Division in Washington. She has moved from being a small town attorney to Washington and left behind her husband Joe who is not comfortable in big cities. She has been given an important case prosecuting two men accused of attempting to bribe a foreign government official when everything starts to go wrong.

While Sasha has fearsome martial arts skills to protect her, Aroostine has the tracking skills she learned from her Native American grandfather. She can commune with nature and understand what is happening around her. She needs all of her skills when the major case she is working on goes very wrong when all of her work and judicial submissions are wiped from the legal network. Then to make her life worse she gets an unexpected delivery - divorce papers from Joe.

The case is bigger than anyone imagines as international gangsters get involved in trying to penetrate the many automated network systems of major businesses and government by putting pressure on the software expert who developed the systems to delete court files to kill the case by kidnapping his mother. Aroostine gets involved in a race against time to foil the kidnapper and win the case. Then the kidnapping also becomes very personal for Aroostine.

Melissa Miller shows us once again that she is at the top of the class of Indie authors of legal thrillers. Her books are entertaining, easy reading and page-turning legal thrillers featuring interesting female leads facing up to and winning in virtually impossible situations. She has built up a fan following who will lap up this new book and they will be pleased that she is already working on the next book in the Aroostine Higgins series, "Chilling Effect" for release in the US Fall. Before that she will release another in the Sasha McCandless series "Irrevocable Trust" in the US Summer.

Melissa F Miller: A Marriage of True Minds

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Sasha and Leo get married
Melissa Miller tells us this novella is written for readers who are already hooked on the Sasha MacCandless legal thriller series because you will know the guest list - "After all, who wants to attend a stranger's wedding?" I have read and enjoyed most of this entertaining but not especially challenging series about a dynamic diminutive lawyer who gets into all kinds of scrapes and can defend herself in the most difficult situations because she is an expert in Krav Maga self-defence.

Over the series Sasha has taken her time to become fully committed to a relationship with her long time partner, former US Marshal, Leo Connelly, but when she decides it is time to get married she makes sure she does it with a splash. All of Sasha and Leo's family, close friends and workmates are invited to a week at a luxury resort in Nicaragua culminating in the wedding on New Year's Eve. Sasha's main concern is that the wedding planner insists that she turns her cell phone off during the ceremony and that her Mother will ensure that her wedding dress is so tight that she may faint walking down the aisle. Leo's concern is that he can't be armed during the ceremony.

 Leo has always called Sasha "A trouble magnet" and her wedding is no exception when she hears that Jeffrey Bricker has escaped from prison and is looking for Sasha to revenge her recent success stopping him releasing a killer flu that would have brought the US to its knees. Bricker's hired thugs invade the wedding rehearsal with the result that "Sasha entered the ballroom with her machete drawn....."

This is lighthearted but enjoyable escapist nonsense that Sasha's many fans will really enjoy.

Melissa F Miller: Improper Influence

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Another easy-reading Sasha McCandless legal thriller
Sasha McCandless and Leo Connelly are facing their hardest challenge at the weekend - planning their wedding to satisfy Sasha's demanding mother. Their plans are thwarted on Friday afternoon when a huge amount of discovery paper for contract case due to be heard on Monday about the supply of herbal ingredients for a popular health kick drink is delivered by her old employer who represents the other party. The weekend becomes a paper trail not a wedding trail.

On the same day Bodhi King, the forensic pathologist who carried out the autopsies three young women who died recently in Pittsburgh from Myocarditis, a rare inflammation of the heart muscle, finds that the computer files of the autopsies have been deleted from both his office network and from his laptop and his notebook containing jottings on these cases has disappeared. He is told by his boss not to worry and not to investigate if there is a connection between these deaths. He goes to Leo for advice because he is the only person he knows with the kind of background that might help him. The next day Leo finds that Bodhi is to be dismissed for improper conduct.

Leo calls Sasha "A trouble magnet". Bodhi's troubles becomes Sasha's troubles as the two issues converge when it becomes clear the ingredients of the health drink may have caused the deaths. Along the way Sasha and Leo uncover a lot of  dirty business and political deals, even involving murder.

Melissa Miller has crafted another complex and at times pretty unbelievable plot with her favourite characters mixing law with trouble. I have read all of Melissa Miller's legal thrillers featuring Sasha McCandless and have enjoyed them despite some unbelievable plots.

Read the book to find out more about the fate of the wedding plans.

Melissa F Miller: Lovers and Madmen: A Sasha McCandless Novella

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What a fantastic surprise to get another Sasha McCandless thriller and be able to read it in just over an hour. I am a novella junkie and this is the most complete, enthralling and exciting novella I have read for ages, especially for someone who has followed the Sasha McCandless series from the beginning.

This book touches on most of the things that make the series different from other legal thrillers. First there is some important further information about the relationship between Sasha and Leo which thank goodness is moving in the right (and steamy) direction. Of course it also covers Sasha's fantastic martial arts's skills and pathetic culinary skills. The story line (apart from Valentines Day) carries on from a previous murder case where Sasha was left with a legal dilemma.

I loved this line from Sasha - "Don't worry. Remember my resolution? No more danger, no more drama." Great words from a diminutive female lawyer who has had four near-death experiences in the last year and a half.

If you have read some or all of the series, this is a must. If you haven't there is no harm in starting here as an introduction and then moving on to the full series.

        

Melissa F Miller: Indispensable Party (Sasha McCandless #4)

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Melissa Miller is one of the better Indie authors who has written several page turning and entertaining Sasha McCandless legal thrillers that have many followers. This book will appeal to those who like legal thrillers that are mixed with a lot of action.

The good thing about this book is that Sasha is once again back with Leo Connelly, who featured in most prior books. We find Leo has left service as a government agent and is now working as Security Manager with a mega pharmaceutical firm. One weekend Sasha and Leo are spending some quality time together out-of-town when Leo gets called back to his office to check out potential commercial espionage. The espionage revolves around the theft of a vaccine his firm is producing to counter an extremely contagious deadly flu virus. Sasha is hired to take legal action against a major pharmaceutical competitor who may be involved in the theft.

Once again Sasha and Leo are inadvertently thrown into a roller coaster of an adventure involving a deadly virus, vaccine theft, and an amazing cult of "Preppers" (survivalists preparing for catastrophe because the think that government will collapse). They also have to do battle with the legal system, the CIA and Homeland Security in a chase to avoid the release of the deadly virus.

Overall this is a well written legal action thriller (though there isn't much legal stuff this time) with a complex plot which will keep you hooked to the very end. My only concern was some of the plot was a bit too outlandish and unbelievable for my taste.

        

Melissa F Miller: Irretrievably Broken (Sasha McCandless #3)

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Disapointing compared with earlier Sasha McCandless adventures
Melissa F Miller's previous books showed great promise of developing Sasha McCandless into one of the better legal heroines around. After this book I felt disappointed that Sasha had not gained strength of character from her previous adventures, both legal and personally. At the end I didn't know where the character was heading.

Sasha McCandless is a skilled female lawyer who in previous books was able to face up to and overcome a range of legal and personal challenges. I had expected that this experience would have matured her character into a confident independent legal operator with the strength to choose her battles where she had the ability to stand on her own feet.

In this case, while she has limited experience of criminal law she allows her powerful former bosses to lure her into taking on a major homicide defence. The case is shonky and far fetched from the beginning and becomes more far fetched as the story progresses.

In previous books Sasha was helped by and became romantically involved with Leo Connelly, a Federal Aviation Marshal, who not only gave her personal support but used his investigative skills and clout to help her solve her cases. This time Sasha operates on her own because she was unable or prepared to make a commitment to this special relationship.

The ending was hurried and there were several evidence issues that were not fully explained. Without giving a spoiler, I believe that there was one very serious legal issue left outstanding at the end that should have been addressed.

While this was easy and well written it was not a memorable book. I was going to give it 3 stars but when I started wondering if my interest in reading further books in the series might be "Irretrievably Broken" I could only give it 2 stars.

Melissa F Miller: Inadvertent Disclosure (Sasha McCandless #2)

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Great legal thriller - read this before Grisham
I really enjoyed the first Sasha McCandless story, but this one was an even better. If you like legal thrillers, forget higher-priced Grisham and read Melissa F Miller - you won't be disappointed.

Sasha is a diminutive lawyer who gets inadvertently gets involved in adventures associated with her legal work. This time Sasha has left the large legal firm where she served her apprenticeship and has set up on her own. During the course of a minor court appearance in a rural community outside of her home base of Pittsburgh she is cornered by the local Judge to represent an old man to prevent  State guardianship for senility. This brings her into the middle of a previously peaceful rural community which has been invaded by shale oil gas developers, with associated environmantal activists and corrupt locals putting pressure on senior citizens to share in the financial bonanza.

This time Sasha's skills as an attorney take precedence over here powerful self-defence skills.  She is involved in a developing relationship with Leo Connelly, who  she met in "Irreparable Harm", who continues to provide counsel and assistance from his sources as a Federal Agent.

The plot is action-filled, page-turning and mostly believable. While there were a couple of  lost threads in the plot and the finale was a bit quick and confused, I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend the book.

I am looking forward to the next Sasha McCandless book and have registered with Melissa F Miller's website to be told when it is released.

Melissa F Miller: Irreparable Harm (Sasha McCandless #1)

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Sasha McCandless - new legal thriller heroine
In her debut novel Melissa Miller introduces us to a new legal thriller heroine - Sasha McCandless - who is different to most fictional lawyer heroines because she has the self-defence skills to protect herself from attack.

Sasha has just completed 8 years of long and arduous hours of her legal apprenticeship and is close to the holy grail of a partnership in a large legal firm. She endures 6 days a week at the office (with little time for a social life), rising before dawn and getting home in time to fall exhausted into bed.  To cope with the pressure, to save time in the morning she sleeps in her jogging gear, grabs a quick cup of coffee and starts her morning exercise run to daily Krav Maga self defence practice.

One of her law firm's biggest clients is a major airline where one of their planes inexplicably loses all pilot control and crashes into a mountainside. During urgent legal damage control to avoid costly class actions from families of passengers killed in the crash, Sasha and her team quickly become suspicious about whether the crash was accidental and further crashes may be planned.

Her fears are confirmed when she is attacked to prevent her completing her investigations. Using her self-defence skills, she inflicts severe injuries on her attackers. From then the race is on to prevent a further crash, helped by her loyal staff and an Sky Marshal who is also convinced that the crash was not an accident.

While some of the action is over the top and unbelievable, this is a page turning and mostly satisfying action thriller .

I enjoy legal thrillers immensely but wonder why a profession that to me is next on the boring list to accountancy can generate so many fictional investigative and action heroes. Maybe it is because the US legal system is played like a football game that it is possible to make fantasies about the match play and create fictional legal theatre.

Because some of the character development is patchy and some action unbelievable, my basic rating is 3.5 stars. But as this is a pretty good first novel and I am keen to read more about Sasha's later exploits I have upped this to a 4 star rating.