Janet Neel Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride

Janet Neel

St. Martin's Dec 2005, $24.95, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0312349238

Being the most recent qualified solicitor at Jenkins Associates, Jules Carlisle handles the cases when everyone else is on vacation. Potential client Serbian Mirko Dragunovic discusses with Jules his belief his brother is one of eight dead men found on a nearby beach. When Jules suggests telling the police, he says he is an illegal economic migrant, before handing her a vial of his AB type blood to be tested and compared to the victims.

Jules knows she needs senior help, but all are away, including Mr. Jenkins visiting Slovakia. When the cops catch Mirko, she comes down to the station to act as his lawyer. The police believe that her client has a connection with those suspected of committing the homicides besides a victim with AB blood. Even stranger, is that Mr. Flowerdew, the farmer who employed Mirko when he was legal three years ago, has a deep interest in the case that he says is altruism. Besides, she also believes Mirko is hiding something that Jules believes could prove deadly to the Serbian expatriate, not realizing the same holds true to her as the future lies in the numbers.

TICKET TO RIDE is a terrific investigative tale with a strong British legal thriller subplot to anchor the inquiry. Jules is a fabulous protagonist struggling with a client who does not totally add up, as she believes he hides a key fact from her, but seems sincere anyway. Besides the link to the beach deaths, Mirko also represents those leaving war torn or impoverished nations for a chance in a G-8 nation, though in his situation it means ignoring his Biochemistry Masters degree. A final twist adds to a pleasurable entreating story.

Harriet Klausner