Death Qualified

A Barbara Holloway Novel

By: Kate Wilhelm

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Five years ago Barbara Holloway gave up practicing law, disillusioned with a profession that put politics before justice. Then she receives a phone call, with a simple message: "I need you."

Nell Kendricks's husband disappeared seven years earlier, abandoning his young family. Nell hasn't seen him since, until the day Lucas Kendricks arrives at the edge of her property and is shot, instantly killed.

Accused of his murder, Nell turns to lawyer Frank Holloway for help. But Frank knows he cannot win this case alone. He calls upon his daughter Barbara, who remains "death qualified," legally able to defend clients who face the death penalty if convicted.

Barbara is determined to stay distanced from the case, but the more she learns, the more questions she finds herself asking. Is Nell innocent, as Frank attests? Where has Lucas Kendricks been for the past seven years? Despite her vow, Barbara finds herself drawn to the case and reclaims the search for truth that first led her to the law.

It's legal: download more of Barbara Holloway's cases.©1991 Kate Wilhelm (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Wilhelm is a masterful storyteller whose novels have just the right blend of solid plot, compelling mystery, and great courtroom drama." (Library Journal)

Needed better editing

I really enjoyed this book a great deal. I found the story intriguing and loved the way Anna Fields read it. The ending was not quite what I was hoping for but that doesn’t take away from the story- just personal preference. My issue with the book is actually in the editing. There were dozens of times when a sentence or two was repeated in the recording which I found to be extremely annoying.

Repeats Paragraphs

Story is okay. It’s annoying that the editor or whatever it’s called didn’t catch the repeats being read in the story.

Death Qualified

There were no complete endings. Very frustrating. Struggled to get through. Did not answer any questions.

That ending, though...

I really got pulled into the story, and listened more than. I usually am able to.
the book was free to me, and one annoyance was the poor editing, paragraphs would be repeated pretty often, but I didn't have to pay. I found the ending, which I had waited for for three hours straight, at least very abrupt and disappointing.
Maybe the next book picks up and gives me some consolation, but I don't think it will.
overall a good book, I recommend it.

Narrator is outstanding

I love this narrator. Her voice is rich and demonstrative. She has the ability to quickly Create characters through nuance of tone and dialect. Male and female voices are clearly identified without an over use and unflattering tone change.
The storyline was different and left a lot to the imagination. The author and narrator are Experts in their ability to bring the countryside to life and create a visual with their words and tone.

Slow start but worth

Started off slow when I was a little confused, but it all came together about midway through the book. Wonderful plot, incredible reader I would suggest this to anyone to listen to.

amazingly good

loved every part. this series is awesome and such a great read or listen as I did in audible. it kept me up at night to hear more and more. could not put down most of the time. great author

Death

Really well written .don’t want to stop listening. I will absolutely continue with the Barbara Holloway series

The need for a sequel

Nothing. Wilhelm is an excellent writer. She kept me in suspense throughout, and I was impressed with the twists in the story about the dangerous mindbending experiments.

A new type of mystery genre for me.

The story itself was great. Some of the events were chilling, others humorous. The characters invoked empathy sometimes for reasons that I didn’t originally anticipate. The storyline is very good and the reader is enlightened at the same time as the characters so you are always itching to get the next scrap of information to put the facts together. This combination of a mystery/detective book with courtroom drama was well done and a new area for me. You find out a lot through the investigation parts of the book but there are also things revealed in the courtroom parts that were previously unknown. I will definitely be checking out the other books of the series.

The narrator was not one of my favorites. I’m a bit spoilt because many of the series I listen to happen to have truly stellar performers that add so much to the book with their interpretations, voices, accents, and the extra unwritten flavor (crying, coughing, grunting, etc) that they add. This reader was very dry in my opinion; very plain. Kind of reminded me of having a book read aloud in school. She has about 3 voices and all the 50 characters share one of the 3 voices. The male voices remind me of a mother reading to a toddler “and then the big bad wolf came and blew the house down!”. Once you really get into the story though, you just listen past the performance and hear the story, which is excellent. It wasn’t bad…it was just not my favorite.

The editing/mastering/whatever was really rough. In just about each chapter there is one or multiple sections of a few sentences that repeat, sometimes once, sometimes multiple times. It totally takes you out of the story. At first I thought it was multiple takes of the same section that were recorded back to back with the purpose of the producer picking the best/preferred version and using that in the final recording. As I’ve listened though, I think it’s the same exact recording (not multiple “takes”) because the repeated sections sound identical. I don’t know how the publisher didn’t catch this since it isn’t just once but all throughout the book.

Despite the okay narration and the poor editing, this is still an excellent listen that I highly recommend because of the real star of the show, the story.