Review: By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer

Genre: Legal Thriller
Publisher: Tyndale House
Released: April 25, 2008
379 pages

About the Book:

After a series of kidnappings and murders in Virginia Beach, newspaper reporter Catherine O'Rourke experiences disturbing dreams that detail each crime. In an effort to aid the investigation, she shares them with her confidential source—a detective working on the case. Catherine's intimate knowledge of the crimes immediately makes her a prime suspect. When scientific evidence corroborates her guilt, she's arrested and charged with murder. As she begins to doubt her own innocence, Catherine turns to Las Vegas lawyer Quinn Newberg, a high-priced specialist in the insanity defense. Quinn believes in justice, Vegas-style. But he doesn't believe in the supernatural, or that Catherine's dreams are anything other than the result of a fractured personality disorder. "Who can understand the human mind?" Quinn knows that insanity cases are unpredictable, but nothing had prepared him for "this!" To win, or even survive, Quinn will need more than his famed legal maneuvering and biting skepticism. On this case, he needs a miracle.

My Rating & Thoughts:    ⭐⭐⭐

Story begins by following Quinn who is a trail lawyer defending his sister for the murder of her husband, her plea is that she is not guilty by reason of insanity. Then there is a second storyline that begins following Catherine who ends up getting charged with murder. Eventually the two characters come together, and Quinn ends up taking on Catherine’s case. There are so many questions going on about whether or not Catherine is guilty that the best defense appears to be guilty by reason of insanity. We learn that there are different definitions of insanity and the two defense cases are vastly different. I really liked Quinn and I really liked Catherine, but this story moves very slowly and for over half of the book it is really two separate stories. Eventually the two stories combine when Quinn starts working with Catherine, and we begin to realize why so much time was dedicated to us learning about these characters prior to them meeting. When there was approx. 100 pages left I became so engrossed with what was happening that I couldn’t put the book down. Prior to this I hadn’t had any issues with putting it down because it had been moving slow. Overall, the story was very detailed describing Catherine’s time spent in jail, the trails and working with the psychiatrist to determine if these clients were insane or not. I was so shocked by the reveal near the end as I had not seen that coming, and I loved the ending. This book left me feeling hopeful for these characters, but it did take me a long time to really get into the story. 

(I purchased my copy of this book; opinions expressed 

in this review are my honest opinion and completely my own.)

Check out my reviews of other books by this author: 

   

The Judge

Fatal Convictions