I was astonished how quickly I was drawn into this story. It pulled me in right away! Fast moving with lots of action, and intensity. I enjoyed every minute of it and couldn't hardly wait to get to the end to see how they brought all the drama and chase to a close. Of course, once it was over, there was the let down of "It's over". I enjoyed the "I can barely stand you but I'm a professional and I'll do my job" attitude of Marshall Jake Taylor towards Judge Liz Michaels. Liz really doesn't understand his cold attitude towards her but someone is trying to kill her. Staying alive and finding the killer before he strikes again,is Priority #1. The more Jake is around her the more the things he thought he knew about her just weren't adding up. Great mystery, great forming friendship and romance was woven together in a way that I totally enjoyed. The other agents in the story were well drawn and enjoyable as well. Since this is Book #1 in this series, I'm thinking some of the family members introduced here, will get a shot at telling their stories in the upcoming books. Looking forward to it. Despite it's predictability, I definitely enjoyed this book. The predictability factor goes along with most romance novels but I enjoyed the characters and the storyline. I will definitely be looking into the next book in the series.Here it goes....Judge Elizabeth Michaels is a strong willed, fair, supreme court judge. She doesn't have much family left but is a strong woman and can get through anything on her own. She lost her mother young and her father a little bit later. Her husband also died tragically a few years ago. All she has left is her sister. Her sister had an abusive husband that Liz had been trying to convince her to leave for quite some time. When her sister gets pregnant, that's when she decides to take Liz's advice and leave her husband and she moves in with Liz. Liz returns back to her condo one evening to find her sister slumped on the couch with a bullet wound in her head. The events that follow are all a crazy whirlwind and don't have a happy ending for Judge Michaels. Her sister makes it through the first round of surgeries but ultimately the damage was too much and her sister doesn't make it. The US Marshals, FBI and local PD are all involved in the case since it was now a murder and it involved a federal judge. The US Marshals are assigned to guard and protect Judge Michaels at any cost.The one US Marshal put in charge is Jake Taylor. Jake Taylor loves the job that he has and has been all over the world catching bad guys. He is just returning from a dangerous apprehension when he gets a call from his boss about this new assignment. When he meets the judge, he realizes that she was the one that was married to his best friend from college, Doug. Although he only met Liz twice, he knew from Doug that she was planning on leaving him and that she put her work before all else. Needless to say, he was not a fan of Judge Michaels.All of that quickly changed once he started to get to know Liz. The image of her that his best friend created doesn't seem to be jiving with what he is seeing before him. This woman seems to be a genuine person, involved in helping others and charity. This image of Liz is one that he likes and would really like to get to know more. He finds himself stopping by her condo when he's off duty, bringing her dinner and taking extra care of her. He realizes that his emotions are going to be a distraction-a distraction that he cannot afford since her life is on the line. She is also stirring things up inside him that he hasn't felt since his wife Jen died.All of the law enforcement agents look to the abusive husband as their main suspect. After a few days of searching for him, they finally find him and bring him in for questioning. He seems genuinely shocked about the news of his wife, and all of them actually believe him. Since they are convinced that he did not kill his wife, that meant only one other thing-someone must have been gunning for the judge and hit the wrong target. At this realization, Jake goes to tell Liz the news. As expected, she takes it pretty hard considering she was the one that was supposed to be dead and not her sister. Jake tells her that she needs to start revisiting her old cases and see if any of them stand out. As the days go on, Liz sorts through the caseload and her and Jake seem to be spending more and more time together. Jake can't seem to keep away and Liz doesn't want him to stay away. They don't seem to be getting anywhere with the case and Liz decides that she needs to get back to some normalcy in her life. She convinces the Marshals to let her return to work which seems to really help.Meanwhile while the story is going on, we get introduced to a man named Marty. You can tell something is off with him and that he must really be the one who is after the judge. Marty is someone who really got the short end of the stick in life lately. He lost his wife a few years back from a ruptured appendix, then lost his house and his job. He tried to sue the doctor involved in his wife's case, but the whole thing got thrown out because he had a terrible lawyer. He places all of the blame on the judge-Judge Michaels. He somehow got involved with this extreme radical group that was all about getting back to the American ways and to rally against the government. He decides to take a stand and kill the judge. He thinks he has succeeded until he sees the paper that says the judge's sister was murdered.Mad that he botched up the first plan, he brainstorms how to go about it again, the right way. There was no way he was letting the judge get away. He comes up with this crazy plan: he kidnaps Liz's across the street neighbor and locks him in the trunk of his own car. He then drives to the neighbor's house and snags the wife, Delores. Since Harold and Delores have already been to visit Liz, he thought that this would be his best way in. He threatens Delores so that she complies and lucks out when a new Marshal was stationed at the command post (Jake took the weekend off to go visit his mother for her 70th birthday). They get in unscathed and make it to Liz's condo. Once inside, Marty unveils who he is. Panicked and scared for what he might do, Liz complies with everything he demands. He has her lock Delores up in a closet and dresses Liz to look like Delores. Then the two of them walk out of the apartment. Before leaving, Liz tries to leave a clue behind. She "accidentally" knocks over some her case files and restacks them on the table, making sure the one piece with Marty's name on it is sticking out more than the rest.Marty takes her to some cabin in the woods for a few days, waiting and planning the right moment to kill her. He keeps sending letters to the media and once the last letter is sent, then he will finish her off. He keeps her tied to a chair and allows her to get up to use the outhouse periodically. Liz decides that she must leave clues and evidence that she was here. She breaks off some of her fingernails and strategically leaves them in certain spots. She cuts herself while in the bathroom and uses some toilet paper to wipe it up and leaves that behind. She also pulls out some strands of hair at the root and leaves those behind too. She even tries to escape but all that got her was banged up and bruised really bad.Of course Jake returns from visiting his mother and is the one to find out that she has gone missing. He is beside himself and frantic to find her. They are at all dead ends until he takes another look around her condo and sees the clue that she left behind. As they were heading to the fanatic group leader to talk to him about Marty, Jake gets a call from his brother Cole. He tells him that he was having lunch with a buddy of his that was doing a house call at the home of someone who seems to be a weird government fanatic. And not only that, but his friend was pulling off gold cat hairs, the one and only clue found at both crime scenes. When Jake asked the name of the guy and found out it was Marty he knew he was on the right trail.It's finally D-Day and Marty moves Liz to the second and final location in all of this. He ties her up and stuffs straw all around her. She keeps floating in and out of consciousness when she realizes she is being soaked in kerosene. She realizes that he is going to light her on fire. With a flick of a few matches, the world around her goes up in flames.The next thing she knows, is that she is in a hospital room and Jake is by her side. Jake and the Marshals arrived just in time. After Jake's sniper friend Todd took down Marty, Jake jumped through the flames to save her. It was touch and go there for a little while but the doctors say that she is going to make a full recovery. Not only that, but now that the case is finally over, Jake finally gives Liz the kiss that they had been building up to the whole book.The book ends five months into the future, with Jake doing a cute marriage proposal and Jake telling her that he doesn't want to wait too long to get married.
What do You think about Fatal Judgment (2011)?
Nicely done. Interesting characters, intriguing issues, and good suspense. It was a great book.
—Raychel
Quick read. Not bad but I found it far too predictable. That's why it's Ok.
—jasmine
I really enjoyed this even though the story was a little predictable.
—Shaynuh
gave up and skimmed to the end - VERY Slow! Don't bother
—lost_kohinoor
