"Bodily Harm" by Robert Dugoni

This is the second book I have read in the David Sloane series by Robert Dugoni. The plot stands alone but you will lose some character development/understanding if you haven’t read at least one of the earlier books in the series – I think there was more explanatory character background in "Wrongful Death" than in this book.

The plot of this book is almost more about revenge than about a legal case – it’s much darker emotionally than the earlier book – and that got in the way of the plot for me. I think the book would have been better if Sloane had been acting as a lawyer and not out of personal motivation, but that’s just my personal opinion. The other thing that bothered me is that some crucial plot points often didn’t seem plausible: that a wrongful death malpractice case went to trial before a toy was ready for market, that a manufacturer wouldn’t notice that toys sent out for market research came back broken (or that they’d notice the damage but not take any action), that a manufacturer would be highly secretive about a new product but send it out to individual homes for focus group testing (I’d expect focus group testing to be in a controlled environment), and mostly that safety concerns about a “bet the company” product would be treated so cavalierly.

Readers who like their legal thrillers to have plenty of thrills will appreciate this book – there is danger surrounding several of the characters and lots of action. I love legal thrillers and enjoyed this book despite my reservations so will continue to read this author, but it was not my favorite example of the genre.