I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Weekend Warriors
by
Fern Michaels
suspense in a paperback edition that was published by Kensington Books on July 1, 2004 and has 304 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon, Audibles.
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Hide and Seek, Vendetta, The Jury, Sweet Revenge, Lethal Justice, Free Fall, Hokus Pokus, Fast Track, Collateral Damage, Final Justice, Under the Radar, Razor Sharp, Vanishing Act, Deadly Deals, Game Over, Cross Roads, Déjà Vu, Home Free
First in the Sisterhood suspense series revolving about a group of women gathered together to find justice for those whom the law has failed.
The Story
Devastated by the death of her daughter, Barbara, in a hit-and-run accident, Myra Rutledge is suddenly jolted back to life when, as a result of a not guilty verdict against a man who had confessed to killing a woman’s daughter, the woman shot and killed him on the courthouse steps. Myra realized there were too many instances where the law was protecting the criminal and decided she would use her money and her lover’s expertise to fight back.
Myra chooses to form a vigilante group who will find their own brand of justice for themselves and for other women. Each woman brings her skills to the aid of each other as they begin to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
The plan is to draw a name out of a hat to determine whose cause will be brought to a conclusion first. In Weekend Warriors, justice for Kathryn will be found.
The Characters
Myra Rutledge, the owner of a Fortune 500 candy business, lost her pregnant daughter, Barbara, to a hit-and-run driver. There was no arrest. No conviction. For the driver had diplomatic immunity. Charles Martin is a former MI-6 operative. Now retired and in charge of Myra’s security. He’s also an old love with whom she has reunited. Nicole “Nikki” Quinn is a defense lawyer and the informally-adopted daughter to Myra. A sister to the now-dead Barbara.
Alexis Thorne was a securities broker who was framed by her brokerage firm. Julia Webster is a plastic surgeon who contracted AIDS from her philandering senator husband. She can no longer work in her profession. Kathryn Lucas is a long-distance trucker driver raped by three bikers. In front of her disabled husband. Waiting until he died to salvage his pride, Kathryn has learned that the statute of limitations ran out. Yoko Akia, partnered with her husband in a flower shop, wants revenge against her father for pimping out her mother. Isabelle Flanders was an architect until the accident in which a trusted employee was driving killed a family. Unconscious from the accident, Isabella was framed by that employee and spent time in prison. The lawsuits wiped her out, branded her as a felon while the guilty employee is living high on the hog from the generous court settlements. Now she works as a personal shopper under a new name.
Jack Emery is, at the start, Nikki’s almost-fiancé and a prosecutor with a passion for law and order.
My Take
On the whole, I enjoyed this story. And I must confess I am so on the side of real justice as opposed to what we have now. Yeah, I know it’s wrong. The vigilante thing. But so is protecting criminals.
Even though Michaels doesn’t pay much attention to the details. Scones? For breakfast? Maybe if they’d been baked by an American and not an Englishman?? There are just too many instances throughout the story of these oddities. I mean, why does Michaels refer to Charles as Emery in the start of the book and then Martin a few pages later? Is it part of his relocation/retirement? Or is he related to Jack Emery?
Nor does Michaels put much effort into depth or smooth movements from scene to scene let alone within individual moments. It’s jarring. And amazingly simplistic. Supposedly they’ve established an alibi for Kathryn by having Isabella disguise herself as Kathryn and go to a resort in the Bahamas…to get away. Yet, Kathryn can barely afford her husband’s funeral. And she suddenly “flies off” on this trip from San Francisco when she’s scheduled to pick up a load even though she’s actually driving her rig down towards LA? What? No one’s going to notice/find out her truck’s moving around California while she’s supposedly in the Bahamas? Then there’s the parking lot of the ladies’ various cars (and truck) at Myra’s farm. Okay, it makes sense for the ladies to just show up for the first meeting but after Jack notices and checks out the owners of those cars. And they still show up in their various vehicles later where anyone could see? Hullo? What is the supposedly omniscient Charles thinking??
The Cover
The cover is both feminine and cottagey with its white clapboard background and the white picket fence flower box overflowing with daisies in front of an opened window, the white curtain pulled aside.
The title is certainly apt as the first instance of justice is meted out against the Weekend Warriors who raped Kathryn.
