Belinda by Mark Zvonkovic

Belinda is primarily a story about a beautiful and aging successful lawyer, Belinda “Lyn” Larkin who works in a well-established Houston law firm. Lyn never married and had always been satisfied with being married to her job. But her retirement age was approaching and she found herself, for the first time, less interested in her work. 

 

She had one major deal to close out when she got an unexpected call from a former love, Jay Jackson. Unbeknown to Lyn, Jay was a former spy for the CIA who had used being a lawyer as his cover. He was out to get even with a French man for killing Jay’s former mentor. But, it is hard to retire from one’s past as a spy which brought complications to his renewed relationship with Lyn. At the same time, the oil deal Lyn wanted to help close was complicated by people who did not really understand the oil business, and by Patrick Brashner who was a partner in one of the firms that was trying to close the deal. This is a well-chosen name for the character who was brash beyond words. He claimed to be representing both sides in the deal which Lyn understood to be a conflict of interest. 

 

It turned out that Brashner needed to the deal to close so he could get his money that he needed to pay for costly renovations on one of his properties. He was antagonistic and obnoxious, and it just so happens he was a misogynist of a severe degree. He did not realize that it was a junior lawyer in the firm he was trying to bamboozle that he chose to rape. She did all the right things and by the end of the book, it was clear that Brashner was headed down the tubes. 

 

The love story between Lyn and Jay seemed to be headed in a good direction, but there were some ambiguities that probably require a follow-up novel to bring all the subplots to a final resolution. This is a good story, one that you’re bound to find entertaining. This is the third novel in a three-book series, but it is adequately a stand-alone work. Check it out.

 

WCD