{"id":17171,"date":"2022-08-16T19:19:23","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T23:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17171"},"modified":"2022-08-16T19:19:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T23:19:23","slug":"fortuitous-justice-by-dennis-carstens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17171","title":{"rendered":"‘Fortuitous Justice,’ by Dennis Carstens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I continue to follow <\/strong>Dennis Carstens\u2019 Minneapolis-located Marc Kadella series of legal mysteries. I also continue a kind of love\/hate relationship with the books. The writing doesn\u2019t impress me a lot, but the storytelling is good, and I generally like the characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marc Kadella, as you may recall, is a Minneapolis attorney. He is now engaged to Maddy Rivers, the uber-hot private detective. In Fortuitous Justice<\/a><\/em>, we pick up several plot threads, which had appeared to be tied up, from the previous book, Twisted Justice<\/em>. That book involved a group of former Minnesota Vikings cheerleaders who\u2019d formed a prostitution ring, and who found themselves way out of their depth when they became a security risk to some of the richest \u2013 and most ruthless \u2013 movers and shakers in Minnesota politics (which means, in case you\u2019re not familiar with my state, Democrats. It\u2019s not stated in so many words in the book, but that\u2019s the way it is).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of Twisted Justice<\/em>, Burt Chayson, a local political fixer who knew too much, was reported dead, an apparent suicide. But now the police say murder, and they have their eyes on one of the Housewife Hookers, Hope Slade, the last person seen with him. Hope had enough on her plate already with prostitution charges and public humiliation. Her husband has left her. Now she\u2019s facing Murder One. She goes to Marc Kadella for defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation will be complicated, really scary hired guns will come to town to shut people\u2019s mouths, and the final resolution will be a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a mystery, I thought Fortuitous Justice<\/em> was pretty good. I was annoyed by too many typos (a common problem these days, alas), and by Carstens\u2019 habit of inserting paragraph breaks at unexpected places in the midst of chunks of dialogue, leaving the reader wondering who\u2019s talking now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also peeved when one unpleasant character was identified as a member of the \u201cfar right religious bunch.\u201d That peeve turned to utter confusion as the character was later identified as a Democrat. (Insert image of Leonard Nimoy here, with one eyebrow cocked: \u201cHighly illogical.\u201d) Honestly, I think the author just lost track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a great book, Fortuitous Justice<\/em> was entertaining and fun. Cautions for language and mature themes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I continue to follow Dennis Carstens\u2019 Minneapolis-located Marc Kadella series of legal mysteries. I also continue a kind of love\/hate relationship with the books. The writing doesn\u2019t impress me a lot, but the storytelling is good, and I generally like the characters. Marc Kadella, as you may recall, is a Minneapolis attorney. He is now … Continue reading ‘Fortuitous Justice,’ by Dennis Carstens<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[4265,4300,4266],"class_list":["post-17171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-dennis-carstens","tag-fortuitous-justice","tag-marc-kadella"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17172,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171\/revisions\/17172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}