Book Review—No Legal Grounds

by Adam Blumer

Bell, James Scott. No Legal Grounds. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007. Paperback, 339 pages, $13.99

(Review copy courtesy of Zondervan)

Purchase: Zondervan, CBD, Amazon

ISBNs: 0310269024 / 9780310269021

LCCN: PS3552.E5158 N62 2007

DCN: 813/.54 22

Subject: Fiction - Suspense/Mystery

James Scott Bell (www.jamesscottbell.com) is a winner of the Christy Award of Excellence in Christian Fiction and the bestselling author of several suspense novels, including No Legal Grounds, Presumed Guilty, Breach of Promise, Deadlock, and Sins of the Fathers. A former trial lawyer, Bell makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife, Cindy.

The Gist

Imagine getting an e-mail from an old college buddy who wants to catch up on old times. Sounds harmless, right? Sam Trask, a 40-something Christian attorney at the firm of Newman & Trask in Beverly Hills, receives such an e-mail; but his memory of Nicky Oberlin, the e-mail’s author, is vague at best. Sam can’t put a name to the face and has only a distant memory of his first year at UC Santa Barbara long before he turned to Christ. But then Sam senses “a faint vibration of unease” (p. 12). Nicky contacted Sam via his private e-mail address, which wasn’t listed on the firm’s website. The e-mail feels like an intrusion and foreshadows events to come.

Debating whether to reply to the e-mail, Sam decides that he has enough going on in his life. His partner wants him to quickly settle a lawsuit involving a figure skater who went blind due to malpractice, but Sam believes the case should go to trial. More stress involves his 17-year-old drug-addict daughter, Heather, whose only ambition is to see her alternative rock band, Screech Monk, get a record deal. Since his conversion, Sam has been trying to rein Heather in from bad friends and from her own self-destructive ways, but each time he exercises his parental authority, she seems to slip farther away. He has also tried to get her involved in church, but all efforts have seemingly been in vain.

Sam deletes Nicky Oberlin’s e-mail, but Nicky doesn’t give up. He sends Sam more e-mails and insists that they meet. Finally, Sam gives in, hoping that the meeting will satisfy Nicky and put an end to the intrusion. But it doesn’t. Nicky becomes more pushy about the friendship and appears to be intentionally provoking Sam and stalking his family. When Sam decides to terminate the relationship, Nicky threatens to tell Sam’s wife, Linda, a potentially devastating secret from Sam’s past before he trusted Christ. But that’s only the beginning of a trail of harassment that only escalates as the novel progresses.

Finally, Sam decides to take legal action but discovers the law can go only so far in protecting his family. If there’s no physical evidence that Nicky Oberlin is the one harassing his family, authorities have “no legal grounds” to arrest him. Sam faces a difficult choice: let Nicky’s harassment continue at the peril of his own family or take the law into his own hands.

Page Appeal

Of the three James Scott Bell Christian legal-suspense bestsellers I’ve read, No Legal Grounds kept me glued like no other. As far as “page appeal,” this novel delivers. Compared to Cape Fear, the storyline of which I’m only vaguely familiar, this tale about a stalker who won’t leave a family alone sustains a breakneck pace from the first page to the last. I had a hard time putting the book down. Bell skillfully moves the story along by avoiding lengthy descriptions and by using plenty of action, dialogue, tight pacing, and short scenes. He also weaves in several Scripture passages as Sam reflects on the Christian life in light of his struggles. Bell is particularly good at dialogue, and his characters jump off the page like real people.

A Surprising Taboo

But perhaps some dialogue is a bit too worldly wise. I was surprised by Bell’s use (and Zondervan’s approval) of a crude expression I’ve always understood to be taboo. I’ve never seen this expression used in Christian novels before, and it bothered me. I hope Bell’s use of this language doesn’t indicate a disturbing trend. Winner of the Christy Award for excellence in Christian fiction, he is, after all, the leader in the legal-suspense category.

Bungling Behavior

Though I enjoyed this novel, I have other criticisms, too. Bell’s characters are adequately drawn for a plot-driven thriller of this nature, but I struggled to feel sympathetic toward his leads. Sam faces big problems, but many of them seem self-inflicted. For example, when Nicky Oberlin shows up at Sam’s son’s ballgame, Sam attacks him. When Nicky shows up at the family’s church, Sam goes ballistic and almost punches him again. Later, without Nicky’s knowledge, Sam records a conversation in which Nicky orally threatens Sam; then Sam tries to use the recording in court against Nicky. An experienced attorney, Sam should know better that such evidence isn’t admissible in court. Clearly Sam’s main character flaw is his temper, but his bungling behavior in law-related areas seems a bit over the top considering that he’s an experienced attorney. I began to wonder who the real enemy was—Nicky or Sam himself?

The other lead, Sam’s prodigal daughter, Heather, has her own set of troubles. Only several chapters into the book, I was already weary of her teenage angst and her sullen, rebellious streak. Her lead singer role in a fledgling rock band came across as stereotypical in this American Idol-obsessed culture. Though Sam and Linda are depicted as relatively new Christians, I still kept wondering why they weren’t better parents. Bell mentions that California law limits parental authority; but this detail came across as a cop-out for the Trasks’ bad parenting skills. The way they let Heather drive off to meet bad company and to do drugs at all hours without any accountability seems like gross negligence. It comes as no surprise, then, that when Sam finally decides to act like a parent, Heather responds by running away with her worldly friend, Roz, and seemingly disappears.

Eyebrow-Raising Subject Matter

[Spoiler Warning] Nicky’s harassment escalates to the point that he kidnaps Heather and tries to sexually assault her. Though nothing explicit is described, the fact of the assault crossed the line in my mind. The kidnapping alone should erase any doubt in readers’ minds that Nicky is a deeply disturbed individual who will stop at nothing, even violence, to make Sam’s life miserable. But are the sexual assault and related details really necessary to make that point?

Nicky also lures Sam to a Vegas hotel room, where an aggressive prostitute knocks on Sam’s door and unsuccessfully tempts him to compromise. The description of her advances seems gratuitous and provocative. Bell tries to justify the description by revealing to the reader that Nicky has secretly photographed the encounter and e-mailed suggestive photos to Linda.

Elaborate Lengths

In my opinion, character motivations are all-important in novels, so one big flaw, in my opinion, is the fact that Bell escalates Nicky’s harassment without telling the reader early on why he’s behaving this way. Readers don’t discover the truth until the novel’s end, but by then, the explanation seems like too little too late. Once I knew the motivation, it seemed incredible to me that anyone, even someone as disturbed as Nicky, would go to such elaborate lengths to destroy Sam’s life. For example, Nicky lures Sam into a pit in the desert and tosses in a rattlesnake. Later, Sam somehow escapes from a house Nicky booby-trapped to burn to the ground. Still, Nicky’s antics make for fun (though unbelievable) reading. I guess when the villain is as deranged as Nicky is, the reader is supposed to accept any type of outrageous behavior.

The Bottom Line

In spite of my criticisms, I enjoyed this novel and had a hard time putting it down. (I especially enjoyed the surprise second ending.) The novel’s strongest take-away value is that it forces the reader to consider what he would do if a Nicky Oberlin showed up on his doorstep and threatened his family. Bell knows how to string words together and how to pace a story with plenty of tension. Also, his experience as a former trial lawyer gives him the legal knowledge and credibility to pull off a story like this. One scene, I thought, was overloaded with legalese; but I think most readers just skim over the jargon and assume Bell knows his stuff. No Legal Grounds is a fun and wholesome read, with the exception of a little crude language and questionable subject matter. If readers are looking for an enjoyable, fast-paced thriller interspersed with light Christian values, they’ll enjoy Bell’s offering.

• Read the Publisher’s Weekly review. Scroll down to No Legal Grounds.

Adam Blumer is a freelance writer, a contract editor, and SI’s managing editor. A Bob Jones University graduate with a B.A. in Print Journalism, he served as an editor and writer for 15 years at Northland Baptist Bible College (Dunbar, WI) and Awana Clubs International Headquarters (Streamwood, IL). A graduate of the Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Course, he has published short stories and articles. In his spare time, he enjoys writing, reading, playing the piano, and hiking in the woods. God has blessed him and his wife, Kim, with two daughters. See his website.