The second book in Dugoni's Keera Duggan series gripped me throughout the story, as all of his books have. Seattle defense attorney Keera was pulled from her staycation when she is called into a case involving her high school classmate Jenna. As Keera defends the manipulating Jenna, she uses strategies she has learned from playing chess and from her father Patsy.

Dugoni's writing is taut and tense, taking readers from a murder scene and into the courtroom for an outstanding legal thriller. His dialogue is exceptional, as is his character development. Narrator Maarleveld vividly portrays each personality, male and female, with the same depth and skill that Dugoni's writing displays. Her performances of the courtroom audio are especially riveting.

I like knowing Keera through her career, family relationships, and personal growth. Her father faces an exceptionally difficult period in his life in this book. Having devoured Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite series, I will patiently wait and hope for a third book featuring Keera Duggan.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

4.5 hearts

I have loved everything I have read from Robert Dugoni. The series I've read are all mysteries of some sort: a police procedural, a spy thriller and now a legal thriller. Beyond Reasonable Doubt is the next in the Keera Duggan series. The setting is Seattle, as some of his other series and we have seen a few characters in the police or CSI I recognized.

Kerra is in her family's firm after leaving the prosecutor's office. The firm needs her as her father, a star criminal defense attorney, is aging and has issues with alcohol. Now a childhood enemy of Keera is up on her second murder charge. Her father got the charges dismissed on her first charge.

Keera has to think hard about whether she will defend this women who bullied and mistreated her in the past. Jenna is a master manipulator who is used to lying and getting her way. With her father in rehab, Keera will be on her own. Keera gathers all the evidence which brings her to the truth. Jenna will have to tell the truth to not spend the rest of her life in prison.

Keera is stellar and I love her. The details in the strategy and her cool handling of the case as she does her best even if she doesn't like her client. Although I enjoyed it when she told Jenna to shut up and listen. I can be petty that way. Keera works well with the prosecution and the detectives. It is just a joy to have these stories.

Narration:
I have listened to this narrator previously. She has a large body of work. I enjoyed her performance, feeling the male and female voices were comfortable. She also handled a bit of an accent. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.

As a longtime fan of Robert Dugoni’s work, especially The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell and the first Keera Duggan novel (Her Deadly Game), I was eager to dive into Beyond Reasonable Doubt. While this second book in the series offers a solid legal thriller, it didn’t quite grip me in the way I’d hoped.

Criminal defense attorney Keera Duggan returns to the courtroom, this time defending her high school rival turned health tech wunderkind in a murder trial. The writing is good, but I didn’t feel invested in the outcome of the trial. The pacing, while steady, didn’t build the same level of tension that made the first book such a standout for me.

Narrator Saskia Maarleveld is an audiobook pro, giving strong delivery and seamlessly alternating between male and female characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for providing me with the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

the setup…
Three years ago, Patrick (Patsy) Duggan successfully defended CEO Jenna Bernstein when she was on trial for murdering her chief medical scientist. Though she was acquitted, Jenna was not considered innocent by the jury of public opinion. Now her former partner and lover has been murdered and the evidence points to her. This time it will be Keera Duggan defending her instead of her father and she’s not a fan. They were childhood “friends” and no one knows better how manipulative Jenna is than Keera. But she will deliver the best defense no matter what.

the heart of the story…
I love a good legal thriller and this is one of the best! Keera used to be a prosecutor before joining the family law practice so she’s particularly skilled in understanding the other side. This case was troublesome for her, however, because of her conflicted feelings about Jenna who she believed to be a sociopath. Keera’s also a great chess player and treats the courtroom and her cases like a big delicious chessboard.

the narration…
I’m such a fan of Saskia Maarleveld so I knew she’d be great and she was. I loved her entire performance but the courtroom scene were stellar!

the bottom line…
I couldn’t wait to get this book and it still surpassed my expectations. Think former Theramos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and you’ve got the mirror image in Jenna Bernstein. Keera’s smart and she’s got the most unlikeable client ever. The case was complicated and Jenna’s guilt or innocence was never clear until the end. It was twisty, clever and gnarly with tense courtroom drama…just the way I love it.