Black Oil, Red Blood in Basically Books!

May 06, 2012 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it it was ok

Shelves: thriller-mystery, womens-fiction, spring-2012

2.5 Stars

I received a free copy of this book from the author to write an honest review.

Who said that the Wild West is dead? In the small Texas town of Kettle, Big Oil rules the town with an iron fist. PetroPlex is the town’s main employer and has several prominent city officials and judges in its pockets as Chloe Taylor quickly learns. Her expert witness is found murdered the day before he is to testify in the wrongful death suit she is seeking damages for her widowed client. The judge relucta 2.5 Stars

I received a free copy of this book from the author to write an honest review.

Who said that the Wild West is dead? In the small Texas town of Kettle, Big Oil rules the town with an iron fist. PetroPlex is the town’s main employer and has several prominent city officials and judges in its pockets as Chloe Taylor quickly learns. Her expert witness is found murdered the day before he is to testify in the wrongful death suit she is seeking damages for her widowed client. The judge reluctantly agrees to a short continuance after seeing some unflattering pictures that her paralegal dug up. Now, with a week before the next hearing, Taylor must find a new expert witness and go through the 40 boxes of findings that the good doctor had in his possession when he died. Only one problem with that; his house is a crime scene. And the new detective in town does everything by the book. Chloe already knows she is litigating on an uneven playing field: all of her cases have been dismissed or have gone against her. The poor girl lives on Ramen noodles. Her client disappears after a suspicious fire. She feels watched. She is close to unraveling PetroPlex and the little town members of the weekly poker game decide.

What she doesn’t know is the key piece of information that got her expert killed. It turns out PetroPlex is harboring a shocking secret—one that has the potential to skyrocket gasoline prices, spark an energy market meltdown, and trigger riots, chaos, death, and destruction on a global scale. Chloe must discover the secret and expose the villains before she is permanently silenced, all while juggling a troublesome ex-fiancé and a tantalizing new flame along the way.

Although Diane Castle has written one of the best hooks I’ve ever read, I learned way too much about Big Oil and cancer. Taylor spews facts throughout the novel like an encyclopedia. I got it; the author hates Big Oil. For me, that preachiness made Chloe Taylor a caricature of tort lawyers rather than a three dimensional character. I began to dislike her. The action scenes were over the top but were believable in the story. But as another reviewer pointed out, ” The action scenes were okay, until the point that they inevitably reached a level of absurdity even I was taken out of the book. I'm all for camp, really, but if the main character noticed Nash's "chiseled torso" one more time at the very wrong time I was going to flip my desk. That and the results of said action scenes were unsatisfactory. Chloe spent too much time being tossed from one action wave to the next without discovering any information on her own. She might as well not have been the main character of this book.”Miles, the gay paralegal, was great and really provided comic relief throughout the story. And, what woman wouldn’t like Detective Nash?

If you are looking for a good, fast read for summer, Diane Castle has provided one. Be prepared to suspend disbelief. Be prepared to get lectured on Big Bad Oil. Castle never offers any viable solutions to Big Oil. I agree the oil industry needs to clean up their act, Energy has to become less harmful to humans and to the environment, but the green technologies are decades away from being widely used. My problems with the story resulted in taking a half star from a book I did like.
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Jun 05, 2012 Hock Tjoa rated it really liked it

For all those who love John Grisham type thrillers, here's one with a hot red-haired attorney working on an oil pollution case which turns out to be much more. She is also running away from a womanizing ex-fiance and head-long into the arms of a too-good-to-be-true hunk of a cop. The plot is convoluted, the action is almost non-stop, and there is a satisfyingly happy ending. What more could any one ask for? ...more

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May 05, 2012 Micki Street rated it it was amazing

Chloe Taylor, a city lawyer from Dallas, gave up a life of luxury when she broke off her engagement to a rich Dallas trial attorney who was incapable of honesty or fidelity and decided to move on. She landed up in the small town of Kettle with a population of 4,000 seemingly run by the largest oil refinery in Texas, PetroPlex – a company notorious for flouting safety violations. With few job options on the market, she accepted a position with the small town Law firm and finds herself soon embroi ...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Deb Novack rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-chick-city-mys-susp-challenge, bcc-100bks-in-yr, wad2012ebkchallenge, my-tbr-thinning

I know if I had a wrongful death suit against "Big Oil" that virtually owns the city and politicians in my town, I would want Chloe Taylor as my lawyer. She doesn't always play fair or with in the law but neither do the oil companies. This story is an honest look into greed, mystery and murder,but does have some romance. This is about what everyone knows "Big Oil" is doing to this country and its residents.
Diane Castle has written a wonderfully honest book. ...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Huma marked it as to-read

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Dec 27, 2012 Traci Sherlock marked it as to-read

Shelves: e-books

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