Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Mary Magruder Katz is finally free of her stuffy fiancé, Franklin Fieldstone and his even stuffier law practice, now happily on her own and basking in her victory after defending socialite Lillian Yarmouth. However, there’s no rest for the weary, two successive phone calls will start the ball rolling towards another legal roller coaster.

The first call from Judge Liz Maxwell is of the highest confidentiality. Under investigation for allegedly going light on drug cases, Judge Maxwell is presumed to be working for a drug lord and the wheels are put into motion to remove her from the bench. When word gets out that Judge Maxwell is dating the married defense attorney from a recent drug case, things will only get worse.

The next call is from Mary’s hot Latin boyfriend and real estate developer, Carlos, asking Mary to do a a favor for family friend, Luis Corona. Without much info to go on, Mary gets to the jail and has to bride the guard just to get to see Luis. Without any knowledge of the charges and a serious language barrier, Mary is able to discover that Luis has been arrested for acts of terrorism on a flight from Argentina to Miami, just before special agents appear and quickly remove Luis to an unknown location. Mary is barely out of the front door before the press is all over her about defending a terrorist, which isn’t going to bode well with her other clients. By the time she gets back to the office, the barrage of angry phone calls and emails have started—not to mention getting physically attacked while walking to her car.

As if all this isn’t enough, Carlos is pressuring Mary to marry him, which puts a bit of a strain on the relationship. Then the proverbial final straw comes when Carlos has a class action suit filed against him that could cost him everything.

With such a heavy and important case load, it’s hard to know where to begin, but Mary knows that she has to do her best to keep a respected judge from being disbarred, a family friend from being shipped to Guantanamo before she can sort out the charges and prevent Carlos from losing everything he worked so hard to build. All while trying to maintain her relationship, her sanity and most of her safety.

Justice in June is Levenson’s sequel to her debut Fatal February. Despite Levenson being an attorney, I found the prose to be very simplistic with a somewhat choppy cadence. The dialogue felt a bit stilted, especially the part where the judge tells her story to her lawyer and then asks if it will be confidential… Really? A judge that doesn’t know about attorney-client privilege?

To add insult to injury, Levenson then has Mary explain attorney-client privilege to the judge. Eek. Having said all this, Justice In June is a quick read and despite the writing, the story-line isn’t bad.
-------------------
Hardcover: 312 pages
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing; 1 edition (June 1, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-1933515717