The Trials of Kate Hope

The Trials of Kate Hope by Wick Downey was a good read. When I first read about it on LM_Net I was interested because the book is set in Colorado in the early 70's. I love historical fiction and I am familiar with Colorado, having attended a semester long program my college offers there. Kate is a teenage girl coming to terms with her dad and older brother's death. Her grandfather who is aging asks for Kate's help in his law firm. Kate passes the bar exam herself and is able to practice law as a teenager. The two cases that are written about are suspenseful enough that I wanted to know how the author was going to cleverly resolve the issues. I was disappointed because there was not a lot of focus on the setting or time period. This book could have taken plae in the 60s, the 80s, the 90s in any location. While that was disappointing, the book itself was interesting. There are a lot of legal thriller books ala John Grisham out for adults, but not for kids or middle grade readers. This should give them some taste of that type of writing and suspense.