Review of ‘Leading the witness’ by Carsen Taite

Catherine Landauer is a criminal defense attorney who was once a victim of a serious headline-grabbing crime. Now she’s focused on holding law enforcement officers accountant for their actions and keeping everyone at bay. Prosecutor Starr Rio has a reputation for doing whatever it takes to get a conviction. When she’s assigned a high profile case, she has to deal with Catherine as a potential witness. Catherine is guarded, uncooperative and sexy. Will they be able to work together and avoid risking their hearts and their lives in the process?

I was expecting this book to be a courtroom drama which is the type of novel I love about this author. Instead, it’s an introspective exploration of the struggles of a serious crime victim. Even though the novel has its dark moments, I wouldn’t say that it comes with trigger warnings because it’s more focused on the present trauma of a survivor rather than on the past crime itself. In that context, I really enjoyed the scenes between Catherine and her therapist in which Ms. Taite throws pearls of her own wisdom for us to enjoy.

Parallel to this, there is a present time crime investigation that brings both main characters together. The romance part of the book is at the background of the crime investigation and I personally would have liked a better development of their chemistry but I understand that the focus of the book is elsewhere.

Even though I enjoyed this read a lot, my rating dropped a bit because I found the resolution a bit rushed in both the criminal and romance parts. However, I think that if you normally enjoy legal/crime thrillers in general and Carsen Taite’s books in particular, you are gonna like this one too. Just be aware that it’s a bit darker than her usual style but nevertheless entertaining.

Overall, a very enjoyable lesbian crime investigation drama book with a romance on the side. 4.5 stars.

ARC provided by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.