A Stain upon the Robe.

A Stain upon the Robe Terry Devane G.P. Putnam's Sons www.penguinputnam.com 304 pp., $24.95

As a longtime fan of legal fiction, I had high hopes for this novel. It was enjoyable in some respects, but in the final analysis, there was simply ton much going on in A Stain upon the Robe to warrant the hearty recommendation I'd hoped to give.

A synopsis at the beginning of the book led me to believe that the plot would center on Mairead O'Clare of Terry Devane's previous novels Juror Number Eleven and Uncommon Justice. In this book, the third in Devane's series, Mairead is a young attorney helping her boss, Sheldon Gold, represent a judge whose law clerk--with whom the judge had been having an affair--has disappeared. Desperate to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the judge hires Gold's firm to investigate her clerk's disappearance. The plot thickens: The missing clerk is mysteriously tied to one of the judge's cases, involving a priest accused of raping children. The makings of a juicy novel, indeed.

Alas, Mairead is not the star of the show, but rather one of many players in this compelling, through poorly organized, novel. I found the book's choppy format irritating: The chapters are broken into short subchapters, each told from a different character's perspective. This endless back-and-forth grows tiresome quickly. I have seen this style work well in the hands of a more gifted writer (James Patterson comes to mind), but it backfires here. The book is so fragmented that I never warmed up to any particular character.

Devane works hard to give his characters depth. Each is battling his or her own demons, unrelated to the main plot, and these prove distracting.

For instance, Mairead is an orphan living with a disfiguring birthmark on her bands and arms; Gold suffers from depression, and his wife is institutionalized, her illness stemming from the kidnapping of their son years earlier; the law firm's secretary is a widow struggling to raise three young boys; and the firm's private investigator is a gay man who is not completely open about his sexuality. These detailed characterizations should make us care about the book's many players, but they remain strangely superficial.

Those problems aside, the book does satisfy in some respects. The plot is full of twists and turns that ultimately link seemingly unconnected events when the law clerk's fate--and the culprit-are revealed.

This fast-paced thriller would be a good choice for an easy beach read. Unfortunately, it is not likely to be a favorite that readers will remember for years to come.

CHRISTINE MOLLENAUER is managing editor of the ATLA Law Reporters.