The Trial of Fallen Angels
A Thriller
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3.8 • 95 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
When young attorney and mother Brek Cuttler finds herself covered in blood and standing on a deserted train platform, she has no memory of how she got there. For one very good reason.
She’s dead.
But she doesn’t believe it at first. Trapped between worlds, Brek struggles to get back to her husband and daughter until she receives a shocking revelation that makes her death no longer deniable: She’s been chosen to join the elite group of lawyers who prosecute and defend souls at the Final Judgment.
With each dramatic trial conducted in a harrowing courtroom of eternity, Brek discovers how the choices that she and others made during their lives have led her to this place. She realizes that if she’s to break the chain, she must first face the terrible truth about her death. But before Brek can do that, she suddenly finds that she herself has been called to stand trial…and that her first client in the afterlife holds the secret to her fate.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A murder mystery becomes a lesson in forgiveness in this overblown spiritual tale by debut novelist Kimmel, who envisions a bureaucratic afterlife called Shemaya in which recently deceased Brek Cuttler, a lawyer on earth, is drafted "to make sure justice is served at the Final Judgment." This involves Brek channeling her clients' entire lives and presenting them in a celestial courtroom, first a surly, Nazi-obsessed mystery man, then a woman Brek once sued on Earth, neither of whom had any obvious impact on Brek's life with her husband and their young daughter. As Brek absorbs experiences and navigates Shemaya's courtrooms, she comes to terms with her own death and with what seems the unfair judicial process of heaven. Though a cluttered plot is eventually woven neatly together, any sense of suspense or momentum is stalled by bouts of weighty philosophizing, and any interest in resolution is deadened by the unrelated tangents. Kimmel (Suing for Peace: A Guide for Resolving Life's Conflicts), a lawyer, is a deep thinker whose intelligence shines through, but his first foray into fiction fails as both a theological treatise and a page-turner.
Customer Reviews
A solid first effort
This is a solid first effort by the author, and I look forward to reading his next book. This story was fun, escapist reading and thought provoking at the same time. As a lawyer myself, I was a little apprehensive, since many books involving lawyers tend to show a distinct lack of understanding of the law and litigation. I was pleasantly surprised by both the author's treatment of the main character and the subject matter, however, and highly recommend this book.
Ultimately
Regretfully, though the author raises profound questions, he achieved something which I would have difficult to do; he made the afterlife boring.
Not bad
The book has an interesting premise and is certainly intriguing. There are many characters to keep track of which is difficult at times. Definitely an intense book.