Equivocal Death: A Novel

by Amy Gutman

Book Overview

Just out of Harvard Law School, Kate Paine is on the fast track at Samson & Mills, the nation's richest, most powerful law firm. Assigned to assist the charismatic managing partner in a high-profile... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316381950
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Sophisticated, exciting, and a pleasure to read

Equivocal Death is a sophisticated and highly engaging thriller from a talented new author. It delivers suspense, atmosphere, and even a rare glimpse inside the Harvard Club of New York City. But the novel has a lot to offer besides great entertainment: It is also an honest and thoughtful examination of the limited lives of lawyers working in huge firms, by someone who's been immersed in that world."Equivocal death" is a police term for an ambiguous death scene which could be either a murder or a suicide. The phrase has this meaning in Gutman's novel, but it is also a metaphor for the main character's ongoing spiritual death as she encloses herself in a seemingly stable and safe but actually quietly deadly world of nonstop work. Is it murder or slow suicide? These important questions dovetail nicely with the fast-paced crime plot of Equivocal Death.

Bravo! A super read!

Everything one could want in a legal thriller . . . and more. The story works on many levels: it's a page-turner that kept me up most of the night; a subtle, cool, and cutting portrait of high-powered law firm life (and death); a well-wrought character study with Kate Paine as the complex, likeable protagonist; and a savvy exploration of bigger issues such as sexual harassment at work. "Equivocal Death" is fabulously written and tightly edited. I loved the book, recommend it highly, and look forward to Amy Gutman's next.

Great Expose of Law Firm Life

Equivocal Death is a great expose of life at a large New York law firm. Like Solzhenytsin's books about the gulag, Amy Gutman's novel is filled with little details that, together, powerfully depict the absurd misery of law firm life - the pompous senior associate who is more concerned about a research memo than the murder of one of the partners the previous night, the backstabbing among partners over "lockstep" compensation, tales of partners throwing staplers at paralegals and associates who collapsed during all night conference calls, and the hypocrisy of representing repugnant and demanding clients. It is alternately amusing and horrifying and, always, realistic. But the book is, above all, a gripping murder mystery full of unexpected plot twists that kept me riveted until the very end. The first time author, who quit law to write full time, definitely made a good career choice. We can only hope that she will stick with novels and write a sequel that is on a par with Equivocal Death.

Page Turner with a Message

This novel is as much about the insanity of life in the city as it is about the insanity of a killer. Kate Paine, the protagonist, driven like all the rest of those seeking fame and fortune in the big apple, is so caught up in the whirlpool of work, that she cannot see what is really happening to her and her co-workers. Murder, the ultimate crime, comes off almost as an inconvenience to those she admires and strives to become at the prestigious law firm where she works. She is so caught up in society's expectations, she finds she is slowly losing her mind - and ultimately - her life. This novel is a great parable of our time. Whatever it takes to get ahead, there is no time to stop and mourn over those we have destroyed in our path. A page turner with the time to stop and consider the irony of working yourself to death.

An Amazing Debut

I just finished reading Equivocal Death, and I have to say--it's a great book. It's a gripping, well-constructed thriller with a very appealing protagonist. And it definitely meets the can't-go-to-sleep-till-you-know-how-it-ends test. But it's also got something larger to say. Not just about law and big-time law firms (though the author gets that part exactly right). But about people who use careers and institutions to cut themselves off from the world. Definitely a gripping, rewarding read.