Now that you’ve had a chance to read a number of chapters of A Trial of One, the third in The Osgoode Trilogy, please have a look at one review of the novel which won the Readers Views Award for Literary Fiction.

A Trial of One: The Third in the Osgoode Trilogy
Mary E. Martin
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 9780595445714

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (2/08)
In “A Trial of One,” third in the “Osgoode Trilogy,” attorney Harry Jenkins is confronted with
greed, fraud, and murder as he seeks to locate the missing shares of Elixicorp Enterprise stock for his
client. The fast-moving plot Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another favorite character of mine, Dorothy Crawford, widow of Richard Crawford, Harry’s deceased law partner, Richard. Have you ever met women, who have no idea how to live when the husband dies, because they have been so dominated all their lives? When I started in law in 1973, I met a lot of them. Dorothy is about to get the shock of her life about her husband in this chapter.  Read on!  Read the rest of this entry »

You are about to meet one of my favorite characters Gladys Giveny, Harry’s who is in each of the three novels in the Osgoode Trilogy. Gladys is caught in time many years ago in more ways than one.

That night, Gladys climbed down wearily from the bus. It swerved sharply from the curb, enveloping her in black clouds of exhaust. She regarded Mortimer Avenue balefully.

Dwarf maples lined her wide street of bungalows. Leaves hung limply in the evening humidity. Couples did not stroll on her street: there was no particular place to go. Children did not play on her street: the traffic was too heavy. Tonight, people stayed inside their boxy houses with the world blotted out by the whir of air conditioners. Gladys wished desperately for an air conditioner, but her sister, Merle, would not hear of it.

“Do you want to make me really sick?” Merle would whine as she fanned herself with a cheap, lacquered fan purchased from Woolworth’s last summer. “I got to think of my arthritis.” When Merle said that, it sounded like Arthur Itis. Read the rest of this entry »

As promised, here is Chapter 5 of A Trial of One. It’s Civic Holiday in most parts of Canada this long weekend. So, I’ll post the next chapter on Tuesday. I’m hoping that by posting 8 or 9 chapters of each book in the trilogy, to get you really hooked into the story. Have you ever been travelling and left a really good novel in a hotel room just when you couldn’t put it down?  I’m hoping you’ll feel like that and have to have your own copy.  Here’s  Chapter  5  where  Harry  and  Dr. Hawke  square off. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Everyone

Be sure to come back tomorrow, Friday August 1, when I’ll post Chapter 4, of A Trial of One

THE WRITER’S VOICE by Mary E. Martin

Sometimes critics speak of a writer’s voice. But what do they mean?  I think of it as a goal to be achieved on a very long road. It’s that uniquely personal “way” you have of expressing yourself to the world in word and thought-the sum total of yourself as a human being. You might say it’s the Holy Grail of writing.

But how and when do you find your voice? Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve read Chapters 1 and 2, you’ve already met some of the major characters, Harry, his client Norma Dinnick and the sinister Dr. Robert Hawke. Now you’ll meet Harry’s secretary [and thorn in his side] Miss Giveny and his father Stanley. And, you’ll meet the love of Harry’s life, Natasha. Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like to introduce you to Norma Dinnick, an elderly client of Harry Jenkins, protagonist of The Osgoode Trilogy. Is she a sweet, vulnerable old lady in need of his protection or a criminal fraud? A Trial of One is the winner of the Literary Novel Award at Reader Views and one of six finalists in Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award to be announced at Book Expo America.

I’m going to post a number of chapters from A Trial of One, just to give you a taste of what it’s like. If you enjoy it, and I think you will, you can purchase it at just about any online bookstore.

CHAPTER ONE

Officially, Harry Jenkins’ elderly client, Norma Dinnick, had committed no crime. While she embroidered tales of murderous revenge in a singsong voice, her doctors rubbed their jaws to hide their smirks. Such a sweetly smiling woman could not have committed the cruel and devious acts she so vividly described. Their diagnosis was psychotic dementia with a touch of Alzheimer’s thrown in. Court documents, stamped with a gold seal, declared her mentally incompetent. After all, psychiatrists were not so easily fooled.Once appointed as her legal guardian, Harry found her accommodations in the most luxurious mental hospital possible. Their deal was unspoken—a nice, permanent home with refined residents, not a jail. For him, Norma remained a fascinating conundrum, and after all, lawyers only wanted to know so much. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi everyone.

Sorry it’s been so long! I’m afraid I’ve been diverted over the last several months by a wedding in the family, a trip to Ireland [more of that later] and the completion of a first draft of a fourth novel. Much work left to go, however!

But now that the trilogy is complete, my protagonist, lawyer Harry Jenkins and I are having an amicable trial separation. Alexander Wainwright—a famous British landscape artist—is the “hero” of the new novel. It’s a different man in a different world, because I really wanted to try something new. Anyway, I expect to get back here now on a regular basis. Read the rest of this entry »

  So, now that you have met Harry Jenkins and his elderly client Norma Dinnick, I am going to introduce you to Dr. Robert Hawke, Harry’s adversary. This charming, but sinister madman claims to have a cure for Alzheimer’s. Where do we meet him? In his bathtub at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto.

I’ll be posting various chapters, so please read on and come back for more. Hopefully, you’ll be so intrigued that you will have to buy A Trial of One.  CHAPTER 2 Read the rest of this entry »