Merit Bridges is an attorney in Austin, Texas, and a widowed mother of Ace, a high school student at a school that assists dyslexic students to excel in Houston. Merit has been representing Manuel and Tarantella ‘Tireman’ Estevez, 2 brothers in partnership at Estevez Tire and Auto Shop. Tireman is frustrated with a legal matter that is dragging on without resolution and takes action. He didn’t think it through, and his maverick initiative complicated everything.

I read the first 2 sentences and thought this novel would be immediately abandoned. As an animal lover, I didn’t know if I could proceed. I stopped reading and used a different app briefly before reading a little further to see if I could continue. A billboard was on fire. It was still a tough beginning as I had images in my mind.

The storyline is heavy with legal terminology and references relevant to the lawyer’s cases. In About the Author, she shares that

"Each of her novels springs from a real-life case in her law firm."

Merit is an intelligent and savvy attorney, caring and protective of her law firm family, and a loving mother to Ace. I enjoyed the character development of a strong woman in a sole practitioner's law firm. It was interesting legal fiction but, in this reviewer's opinion, does not have the suspense of a thriller and needed copy edits further negate excitement. I don't plan to continue reading the series. ( )

TEXAS / MYSTERY
Manning Wolfe
Dollar Signs: Texas Lady Lawyer vs Boots King
Starpath Books, LLC
Ebook, 978-1-944225-00-1, 257 pgs., $7.99
February 18, 2016

When Tarantella Estevez set fire to the billboard looming over his tire shop he didn’t consider all of the junked vehicles parked on the lot beneath it. And how could he know that a homeless man was sleeping in one of those cars? So when the billboard buckles and falls flaming onto the vehicles below, and the gasoline in their tanks ignites, a simple charge of vandalism becomes manslaughter and Austin lawyer Merit Bridges, the Estevez brothers’ real estate attorney for a case involving the aforementioned, now incinerated, billboard, is cast into unfamiliar criminal waters. Boots King (“slippery as snail snot”) is an ethically challenged leasing agent employed by the owner of the billboard company to con trusting property owners into outdoor advertising contracts with some highly suspicious language buried in the small print. Boots isn’t averse to getting his hands dirty in a little wet work when called upon by his boss.

Dollar Signs: Texas Lady Lawyer vs Boots King is a legal thriller by Manning Wolfe, the winner of a Writers’ League of Texas manuscript contest, and the first in a planned series. Manning brings her legal education and years of experience practicing law in Austin to bear on this promising debut. She even manages to make the minutiae of contracts and real estate law and procedure interesting (seriously — y’all stop laughing).

Steeped in the sometimes self-conscious weirdness of Austin, Dollar Signs has a distinctly Texas feel. All of the familiar landmarks and a few new ones are here, from Fonda San Miguel to Amy’s Ice Creams. This tale is peopled with a diverse and quirky cast of characters, as befits Austin. Merit Bridges is a Texas original, and Wolf provides her with a complex and interesting backstory. The relationship between Bridges and her dyslexic teenage son provides a sweet respite from all the scheming and darkness of her current case. The only missteps in Dollar Signs involve the aforementioned self-conscious weirdness of Austin. Not everyone in the capital city is auditioning for their own reality show. Wolfe makes you care about her characters, and a lighter touch will keep them out of stereotype territory.

Wolfe grabs our attention with the first sentence as the PETA billboard begins to burn and the “smiling head of Greg Lee Wood burst into flames. Each animal surrounding him caught fire and burned. Two dogs, three cats, a sheep, and two goats all went in a giant ball of fire.” She keeps our attention with an original plot, fast pace, plenty of action, and an exciting conclusion.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. ( )

Merit Bridges is a wonderful character that has a great future. She is not too old or too young but just right. She is a mother, a lawyer, a widow, savvy and able to express what she does and does not want/like. There are billboards everywhere in the world and if half of what is talked about in this book is true then…oh my…and what a hook to base a story on.

The story has characters I could relate to and an idea that was new to me. The bad guy is charming – at first – but definitely more than a con man and he was truly evil. I look forward to hearing more about Merit, Ace – her son, Ag, Val, Mai and others who made their debut in this book. This is a book that could one day show up on the big screen but for now I look forward to finding out what happens next when book two in the series is finished.

Thank you to NetGalley and Starpath LLC for the copy of this ARC to read and review. ( )