A Trial of One: The Third in the Osgoode Trilogy

By Mary E. Martin

Book Overview

""The gathering of the ravens presages a disturbance of the natural order."" Attorney Harry Jenkins is back in "A Trial of One," the final installment of the unsolved saga started in Mary E. Martins... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595445713
• ISBN13: 9780595445714
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

With an intricate plot, an excellent ending to an astounding trilogy!

Just when Harry believes that he can take a breath and slow down, he's in for the biggest ride of his life. He continues to visit Norma at the institution, determined to help find the missing shares to Elixicorp for her, understanding that they're worth approximately thirty-million dollars. And just when he thought he had no worries, as all the men who've threatened him and Norma are no longer in the picture, in comes `Dr.' Robert Hawke. Hawke wants the share and the money for his own purposes. He believes with the money, he can actually produce a cure for Alzheimer's. And while one company is testing on Alzheimer's patients, Hawke has been creating an ultimate sin; using perfectly healthy `victims' and destroying their psyche by trying to induce Alzheimer's. What's scarier: Hawke actually believes that he's doing no wrong. Hawke believes he and Harry should combine forces and track downt he shares together, with an agreement that the matter would be brought before the courts as to determine the monies' rightful owner. But Harry doesn't trust him and slips from Hawke's grasp, first heading to Venice, Italy. Once there, it is determined that he needs to head to London, England for another piece of the puzzle before returning to Venice for the prize - for the thirty million has turned into fifty million. Question is, can Harry find the money before Hawke kills him? Meanwhile, Dorothy Crawford, wife of Harry's late partner, Richard, has found Richard's diaries. Convinced that he'd been poisoned to death. He began to get sick and it became worse every time he ate at Q's, whom Dorothy presumes was one of many of Richard's lovers. Even though angry at Richard for his treatment toward her as his wife, Dorothy is determined to find Richard's murderer and bring that person to justice. And just to complicate things, Harry's father's psyche is slipping away more and more, and it hurts Harry. Just when he'd forgiven him and they started talking, Harry is now worried that he'll lose his father all too soon. And then there's the lovely Natasha. They've been seeing each other for just over a year, and Harry's ready to have Natasha move in with him. But Natasha believes they're moving too fast; when in truth, Natasha is torn between two people: Harry, and Sheila... Oh, was this the perfect ending to Ms. Martin's trilogy! An incredible blend of extraordinary characters, an intricate plot with lies, half-truths and deceit, Harry literally has to watch his back at every turn. You're swept into his world and feel deeply for him. From Toronto to Venice to London, each scene is vividly described so that you can really picture it in your mind as you're reading. Scenes with Harry's father and Norma will hit closet to home for readers with family and friends who suffer from Alzheimers and dementia. It was very easy for this author to lose herself in Martin's profound and challenging story and highly recommend it. Filled with chills and suspense, intense characters

Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend

As the sequence of events which are the final work of the Osgood trilogy, A Trial of One, opens; Norma Dinnick, Harry Jenkins' elderly client has committed no actual offense. She HAD embroidered the accounts of homicidal retribution in a singsong voice as her doctors rubbed their jaws to cover up their grins. Their opinion was psychotic dementia with a little Alzheimer's added to the mix. Norma was psychologically inept. Harry was accordingly assigned as her legal guardian by the courts, whereupon he found her housings in a well-appointed mental hospital and set about trying to trace missing stock for the Elixicorp Enterprises which had been secreted by her late husband. Initially marketed to elevate money for medical research into recollection loss too often found in the aged; the shares oddly enough had gone missing, and no one remembered just where they might be. Norma was quite adamant that she and she alone had any real claim regarding the stock which were said to be worth upwards of 30 million. Three men who also coveted the money were deceased, Norma had alleged that she had assassinated them. Dead also was her husband Arthur. George Pappas and his underworld connections, Archie Brinks and David Parrish, all dead. Even Harry's law partner was dead. Harry realized Norma's madness was something she was well able to turn off and on pretty much at will. A Dr Robert Hawke searching for the cause of Alzheimer's wanted to find Norma, as did his associate Veronica Deal. And, her brother Garth. A lot of people were looking for Norma and all that money. The search was to take Harry to Europe where Hawke's extreme anxiety led to Harry being ruthlessly beaten. Only rescue by the quick thinking desk clerk at his hotel saved Harry from potential death. Later Harry returned the good deed when the clerk too was savagely assaulted for refusing to give away where Harry was. Sale of Norma's Georgian six-plex, a female named Natasha, an asphyxiated cat, and the suicide of Harry's law school roommate, a crow in a workplace, Europe, London, Venice, peril and a anonymous woman known as Q, fabrication and treachery, torment, and blood lust and obsession, covert lines of investigation, demise of a mischief maker bent on dreadfulness, and a slayer unmasked. Writer Martin, no relative to this reviewer, is a skilled writer who has on the pages of A Trial of One fashioned a medley of stimulating players overflowing with more persona and angst than most. Locales are well detailed serving to draw the reader into the sequence of events and grasp reader concentration fast. Discourse is at times coarse, unrefined and astringent. The plot is a gripping, reader captivating set of circumstances. Villains are properly iniquitous, Harry is dense and clever by turns as he tries to disentangle the vagueness and treachery found in his client, the deaths of his late partner along with the scoundrels determined to latch onto all that money to be had from the shares of stock,

On the brink of madness

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (2/08) In "A Trial of One," third in the "Osgoode Trilogy," attorney Harry Jenkins is confronted with greed, fraud, and murder as he seeks to locate the missing shares of Elixicorp Enterprise stock for his client. The fast-moving plot takes Harry from Toronto, Canada to Venice, Italy, and finally to London, England to retrieve the stock valued at $50,000,000. Ruthless and cunning Dr. Robert Hawke is also eager to get his hands on the money for his private experiments. As an afterthought, he is determined to turn Harry into one of his human guinea pigs. Martin introduces characters in the novel that assume there is purpose for their lives yet feel an incompleteness, a longing for something more. Mary's characters have flaws, strengths and weaknesses. She uses the emotions of her characters to provoke the reader to consider unconditional love and acceptance and what this means. After a severe beating while in Venice, a young hotel clerk saves Harry's life. Later in an attempt to protect Harry, young Angelo refused to give Harry's location and is slashed and beaten by Hawke's crazed thugs. Harry, in turn, saves Angelo when he finds him near death, bound and gagged. A thread of sexual tension and romance is interwoven into the drama and suspense of the multifaceted plot and subplots throughout the story. Martin demonstrates an amazing insight and understanding into the misdirected obsessions which bring a person to the brink madness, the frustrations of dementia and aging, and the loneliness found in care facilities for the elderly. I became totally immersed in the story. "A Trial of One" is profound and thought-provoking with a strong message, a masterfully crafted story line, with real life characters that experience challenges that resonate with the reader. This is a book filled with suspense, romance, and adventure, something for everyone.