The Truth About the Devlins by Lise Scottoline - Review

This was one of the books I bought before Christmas in a sale, the haul of which I am trying to get through as I've said previously. I was intrigued by the premise of this, but I'm not sure if I thought it really stood up to it entirely. I can see that the author has written a bunch of books previously but I'm not sure I would rush to read anything else by her. I did feel like this got a bit ridiculous in parts and stretched credibility a bit, but I did like it for the most part. 

The main character is TJ Devlin and he is the fuck up in his family. Both his parents and his older brother and sister are lawyers and work in the same firm - not surprisingly called Devlin & Devlin & Devlin & Devlin. TJ is an investigator for the firm which honestly he is pretty good at even though his brother John calls it a sinecure position. TJ is an alcoholic and due to some stupid decisions he made while drunk, he served a year in prison. He's therefore not full on job offers, so working for the family firm suits him. He is in Alcoholics Anonymous and has been sober for nearly two years and is pretty proud of himself. He deserves to be - he battles daily against the urge to drink and is trying to put his life back together. He still has a thing for his ex and hopes they can get back together. 

But family life isn't great. TJ feels like the whole family looks down on him because he's not a lawyer, really. His dad, especially, holds older brother John on a pedestal, and is a pretty harsh patriarch. The whole family thinks that TJ will go and drink at any given moment. His mum is very proud of him, and older sister Gabby likes to use him on her pro bono cases, but older brother John and he don't get on. John is the golden child, the alpha son, etc. 

But right at the beginning of the book he comes to TJ and says that he thinks he has killed a man. This man was the accountant at a firm that the law firm represents, who are about to undergo a buy out. John says he uncovered some irregularities in the accounts, and says that he accused Noah of embezzling funds. Noah went after him and John hit him and he fell on to a rock. John was pretty sure that he was dead, and he ran and asked for help from TJ straight away. The two of them leave a family dinner and go back to where John left him. 

Only Noah isn't there. The two look for him, but can't find him. But then the next day his body is found in his car. The police are quick to call it suicide, but TJ isn't convinced. He starts to look into the company and it becomes clear that someone is following him. Meanwhile, he is also working on stuff for Gabby to do with a medical neglience case that she is undertaking. 

A lot happens in this book and it was sometimes a bit difficult to keep things straight, but I did like it. I liked TJ and wanted him to succeed. I liked the outcome of the book but I think the ending was dragged on a bit when it could have ended a couple of chapters earlier. But I'm still giving this four out of five as I enjoyed it.