Fiction Book Reviews

Book Review: Defending Angels

By Sandy Amazeen Oct 29, 2008, 18:30 GMT

With a long list of ethereal clients who need her help, Savannah lawyer Brianna Winston Beaufort’s career choice is beginning to haunt her… An already dead businessman needs Bree’s help to find his murderer and prove his innocence against the charge of greed, which comes from the mightiest hand of the law, the Celestial Court. And the verdict in this case could put Bree’s life on the line—as well as ...more

After her Uncle Franklin died in a small but intense fire, attorney Brianna Winston-Beaufort decided to move to Savannah, Georgia and start up her own practice using his old client list. Not only was this an excellent opportunity to strike out on her own, Bree would also be a comfortable distance from her well-intended yet smothering parents. From finding the right office space to hiring office staff, it is clear Bree might just be in over her head, especially when her first client is a wealthy woman looking for relief from a ghost.

Benjamin Skinner, the wealthiest man in all of Georgia had a heart attack, fell overboard and drowned. All the forensic evidence backs up the sworn testimony of the witnesses but Skinner won’t rest or leave Liz Overshaw alone until the guilty party is discovered. The deeper Bree and her staff dig, the dirtier those associated with the new development Island Dream, appear to be. Bree finds herself having to accept some strange truths while coming to terms with a very special dog, an unusual private detective, a haunting painting and her family.

With an office set in the middle of a “murderer’s cemetery”, talkative animals, the celestial court, angels and demons and ghosts oh my, Stanton has created an entertaining, smoothly paced detective story. It is refreshing to see the heroine working with a cop without the formula sexual tensions. There is a loose end or two that could have been dealt with, such as Bree’s second case where readers are left wondering if the climax resolved that haunting as well. Bree’s responses to her rapidly changing perspectives about ghosts, angels and evil are as amusing as they are plausible and it is likely Bree will be facing more demons in the near future.