Double Jeopardy
I thought this book was a good first effort by new author, Judith Blevins. One thing that I was expecting more from this book was the court scene to have more drama and play out longer due to her background having worked in the criminal justice system. This scene felt kind of glossed over and it was like the reader was supposed to assume that they should have some knowledge of her the whole double jeopardy works.
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Double jeopardy is a procedural defence that forbids a defendant from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following a legitimate acquittal or conviction. In common law countries, a defendant may enter a peremptory plea of autrefois acquit or autrefois convict (autrefois means "previously" in French), meaning the defendant has been acquitted or convicted of the same offence.
If this issue is raised, evidence will be placed before the court, which will normally rule as a preliminary matter whether the plea is substantiated, and if it so finds, the projected trial will be prevented from proceeding. In many countries, the guarantee against being "twice put in jeopardy" is a constitutional right; these include Mexico and the United States. In other countries, the protection is afforded by statute law.
There were two other factors that I did not care for in this book. One being the relationship between Jas and Nick. First Jas meets Nick again for the first time in a long time and than the next moment, they are head over heels in love with each other and Nick is ready to pop the question. I wanted the build up first, I did not believe that Jas and Nick were really in love in the beginning. Than, when the murder did happen, it was over so quickly that if you blinked you would miss it. The ending was alright. Again, a nice first effort but Mrs. Blevins. Hopefully her next book will be better.
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