Second Degree (Benjamin Davis Book 2) by A Turk

460 Pages
Publisher: A. Turk LLC, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles
Release Date: January 7, 2015

Fiction, General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Thriller, Legal, Medical

Peter Nichols is a cosmetic dentist. His mother has died from a rare form of dementia and his older brother is now suffering with it. Thinking about the future of the practice, Peter talks with his attorney, Ben Davis, about options. They decide the best option would be to bring in a medical doctor to supplement services. After reviewing three candidates, they select a young oral surgeon, Charles Juan Baptiste Garcia. He is good looking and trouble seems to follow him. Now with the future of his practice in jeopardy, Peter depends on Ben’s expertise to get him out of this fix.

The book has a fast pace, the characters are well developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. This author has a way of spinning a story that pulls the reader in until the end. If you like legal or medical suspense books, you cannot go wrong with this one.

A very well written and enjoyable legal drama.
Many thanks to A. Turk LLC and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. A legal thriller that is heavy on the legal and light on the thriller. You know that the law moves slowly because it takes so many pages to get from part to part. That said, it isn't a bad story, just very slow moving. Character, a lot of them and most of them are pretty flat.

I am reading everything I can find by this author now. The book was well paced and I enjoyed the protagonist very much. Will be looking forward to more in this series.

An egotistical young doctor comes to Nashville to link his practice with a well-respected local doctor of dentistry. His good looks and charismatic nature has local women flocking to the office for his trademark enhancements, but Dr. Charles Juan Batista Garcia is short on ethics and very focused on sex, drugs, music and money.

Ben Davis and his law associates are back, but are they out of their league this time? The Senator has asked Ben to take on the role of Prosecutor in a tragic case and press for a Second Degree murder conviction. Ben has never prosecuted a case and doesn't feel qualified to take this on, but the Senator is not taking no for an answer and the State of Tennessee swears in three new assistant DAs.

I very much like Ben, Sammie and Morty but the story bounces around quite a bit which caused me to become a little disconnected. There is also quite a bit of focus on Ben's dietary shortcomings and we are repeatedly re-introduced to characters we met in the first book and throughout this one. An example would be the ex-husband for the defense attorney. Each time he re-enters this story, we get the same background information. This occurs with other characters as well. It's as if the author wants each chapter to be able to stand alone and it started to feel tedious so I found myself skipping the descriptions after the third or fourth time. Second Degree is the second book in the series and this story ended a bit abruptly, however, I do think the flow of this book was smoother than the first. I am getting comfortable with the characters and am interested to discover what awaits them in the next installment.

Reader be warned, there is explicit and very graphic sex that is not erotic in nature.

I AM SO EMBARRASSED ... JUST NOW FINDING THIS ONE ON MY KINDLE/AMAZON. WAS NEVER READ SO NO REVIEW COMING AT THIS LATE DATE. MY SINCERE APOLOGIES. BOOK HAS BEEN ARCHIVED.

Second Degree is the second book in the Benjamin Davis book series. It is a stand-alone book but is better if you read First Do No Harm which is the first book in the series.

The story begins in the past and then jumps to the near past. Then the rest of the book brings the past/present together to wrap up the story. There is a host of characters you need to keep straight. First, of course, is Benjamin Davis, attorney at law, his partner and mentor Morty Steine and Ben’s niece Sammie Davis who has just gotten her law degree. The rest of the characters include wealthy parents, a playboy son who is a doctor, a drug addicted girlfriend of the doctor’s and a US Senator.

The book begins with Charles Garcis, MD and Robyn Eden, the drug addict, having a sex marathon. It ends with Robyn on her way to the hospital in an ambulance. The story then jumps forward in time to how Charles became a partner with a cosmetic dentist and the resulting games Charles plays with his patients. The result of this ties back to the beginning story and goes forward with a trial for second degree murder.

Most of the story is about the arrest and trial of Charles Garcia and how far having money will go in preventing his conviction. It also ends up showing just how flawed the judicial system is in prosecuting someone who is negligent in their medical practice. There are lots of legal terms but the author makes it easy to follow as there is a chapter at the end that defines all the terms used in the book.

I had a hard time putting this book down and was glad I had read the first one first even though I could have followed this book without doing so. It just made the story so much better having read First Do No Harm. If you like legal thrillers, this is definitely a book you should have.