4 out of 4 stars
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A Fatal Cell Phone Video is a legal thriller by author Gary Reed. The book is just about 400 pages and is separated by date and time instead of chapters. It is reminiscent of the television drama Law & Order.
Ann Medawar is taking a film class at a local college in Cincinnati. The class has been assigned the task of making a documentary. They have chosen the subject of illegal immigrants. In order to obtain more footage, Ann asks her husband Dr. Rafiq Medawar to check on some undocumented immigrants at a local motel. Their children are sick, and they don’t want to take them to a hospital for fear of being deported. Ann captures Dr. Medawar and a nurse entering and leaving the motel. Not long afterwards, Ann is murdered.
The police find the cell phone video of Dr. Medawar at the hotel with the nurse and assume he was having an affair. They arrest him for murdering his wife not only based on the cell phone video, but also because they have it in their head he is a Syrian Muslim. It doesn’t seem to matter that Dr. Medawar is a Catholic born in Cincinnati. Will the police be able to figure out who actually murdered Ann or will they convict Dr. Medawar?
This book starts off with a bang. We learn very early on in the story that Ann has been murdered. The rest of the book is then devoted to preparing a defense for Dr. Medawar as well as his actual trial. The author also includes a few side stories that are woven masterfully into the plot.
At first glance, the story might seem boring. I confess that before reading it, I was worried that it would put me to sleep. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Reed creates believable characters that I had no trouble identifying with. I was appalled at the bias that the county prosecutor shows at several points in the book. I felt sorry for Dr. Medawar as he not only dealt with the loss of his wife, but then had to deal with being prosecuted for that very crime. The story itself was also very realistic. I have seen too many news stories to think that people don’t get convicted for crimes they didn’t commit.
Overall, I have nothing negative to say about this book. The formatting was well done. I had no problems following along with the time line. In fact, I appreciated that the book was split out by date rather than trying to split it into chapters. I thought it flowed more nicely this way. I also found very little in the way of grammatical errors or mistakes. If I had anything to criticize, it would probably be the title. I feel like the title didn’t draw me in enough; it seems like it needs to be something more dramatic.
I rate A Fatal Cell Phone Video a 4 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed reading this book as it kept me wanting more. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys legal thrillers or shows like Law & Order and even those who just want to read a good book!
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A Fatal Cell Phone Video
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