Accusation by Paul Batista

 A legal thriller that focuses on a famous actor accused of sexual harassment.

Aaron Julian receives a call from his agent informing him that he has been accused by several young female actresses of taking liberties with them and then ruining their careers. Represented by a lawyer who brought down the Catholic Church in the Boston Archdiocese over abuse by priests, these women are appearing on television making their claims. Aaron Julian and his wife, a famous singer named Vega, have been married for 3 years and they are urged to retain defense attorney Raquel Rematti. 

Although the book is short, the pace is fast and events soon pile up into a vast conspiracy as each side creates a response to the charges and engages in different efforts to reveal the truth — or do they? It was obvious quite quickly that justice in this case would be impossible as nefarious and patently illegal methods are used to seek answers that benefited either the prosecution or the defense. I was actually sort of sickened by the manipulation that went on behind the scenes and am concerned that, in many cases, justice is not served by the legal system. 

The characters were hard to like as each seemed engaged in a more personal fight that had nothing to do with the case. Despite being a legal thriller, there was not much action in the courtroom as most of the narrative focused on what was going on behind the scenes. I liked the story well enough and it was hard to put it down. That’s why the ending came as such a surprise and why I knocked off a star. The author really did not provide any explanation for some of the loose ends. In any event, I had though about going back to read the previous books in the series that feature Raquel Rematti but now not sure since I was very disappointed with the conclusion. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for this e-book ARC to read and review. 

This is the third in a series featuring Raquel Rematti but this is the only one I read and it can be read as a standalone.

Genre - legal thriller, #metoo