I haven't read the other books in the series, so that may have affected my thoughts on this book, but personally I didn't think it was great. The biggest flaw was that nothing actually happened - SPOILER - the whole time they're gearing up for a big showdown in court or a great coup by getting the murder to flip on a terrorist, but nothing happens. Everybody just gets killed, so the main character doesn't actually DO anything. Very anti-climatic. I was looking forward to a good legal battle, and it just never happened.

2nd flaw was the new lawyer - her character was the key to certain events happening or not happening, but she was very unbelievable. I found her behavior disgusting and childish, and certainly not the behavior of a smart lawyer.

The main character seemed interesting and likeable enough, but the other stuff ruined the book for me. ( )

I enjoyed the first three books in this series, but was really disappointed in this one and had a hard time finishing it. The premise of the story was good, but the dialogue and actions of supposedly intelligent people was, at times, immature and childish. I don't care for the direction in which she has taken the two main characters. Pretty much, I'm sorry to say, I just didn't even care to finish the book. Still, I'll probably read her next book and hope it will be as good as the first three books in the series. ( )

Notorious is an entertaining legal-centered mystery focusing on prosecuting attorney Melanie Vargas. When the lead defense attorney for rap artist Atari Briggs is assassinated, Melanie vows to bring the assassins to justice along with convicting Briggs on the murder charges that he faces from his life on the streets before becoming a star.

The plot of the book mainly focuses on Melanie's investigations and subsequent witness interviews and periodic court hearings. There is more than enough to keep the book moving along at a brisk pace and Martinez' writing style never becomes tedious as I have found many legal thrillers to be. There are several twists and turns throughout the novel and I found it to be a nice, entertaining read.

I will definitely be reading the previous Melanie Vargas books in the near future and eagerly anticipate future additions to the series. It's always nice to find a new series of books that I can pick up and read for a couple of hours in an afternoon without feeling like I'm wading through something that I really have to put a lot of thought into. The feel of this novel reminded me a lot of a Patterson novel, albeit with less of the suspense and more of a courtroom feel. ( )

*My review is based on the uncorrected proof ARC*

This book did not start well, got a little better in the middle, then ended poorly.

The plot description misled me to think that this would be akin to reading a Janet Evanovich story; mysterious, sexy, a little grittier than Evanovicch but still with a bit of humor thrown in. This book is none of those things.

First off, the writing is very reflective of a first effort (which this is not), or rather a first draft of a first effort.

The descriptions are clunky and feel very forced. Much of the writing is redundant and constantly made me wonder where the editor was. Word choices were also unnatural seemingly chosen to add authenticity to some of the "grittier" characters but instead came off as false.

The main character was also uninteresting. It was difficult to empathize with her or care about what she was doing.

The plot starts off simply enough and then veers off into so many complicated threads that ultimately end nowhere. The root of the plot is fine, but the author keeps adding more and more elements and then never pays them off; they end up being misinformation or ultimately have little to no bearing on the central plot. The ending is especially guilty of this. With 10 pages to go and nothing resolved, I kept waiting for the dots to connect and instead the author basically just erased them. ( )

I slogged through this to the end, hoping it would live up to the hype on the cover and intro. blurbs.

It never did.

The plot seemed all right for one of the thrillers, typical of this genre, but with a few mildly interesting twists.

However, I could never get into any of the characters portrayed. The protagonist seemed cold, the villians are sort of inexplicable, and being good looking seems to be enough to overcome the gravest character flaws. I quickly became tired of reading about the great draw various characters had for each other simply based on his/her physical description. It just did not play out as real enough.

In addition to cold or poorly motivated characters (the heroine's co-lawyer in particular seemed like a waste of space), what dialog there was was flat. Perhaps Lehane, Crais and Parker have spoiled me, but I like wit and charm in my crime novels, and this book has no wit and certainly no charm.

In the end, if I was on a really long plane flight I might pack this, if I picked it up at the library. But I wouldn't buy it new, and I certainly wouldn't stock it in my personal library. ( )