September 24, 2012
A murder mystery becomes a lesson in forgiveness in this overblown spiritual tale by debut novelist Kimmel, who envisions a bureaucratic afterlife called Shemaya in which recently deceased Brek Cuttler, a lawyer on earth, is drafted “to make sure justice is served at the Final Judgment.” This involves Brek channeling her clients’ entire lives and presenting them in a celestial courtroom, first a surly, Nazi-obsessed mystery man, then a woman Brek once sued on Earth, neither of whom had any obvious impact on Brek’s life with her husband and their young daughter. As Brek absorbs experiences and navigates Shemaya’s courtrooms, she comes to terms with her own death and with what seems the unfair judicial process of heaven. Though a cluttered plot is eventually woven neatly together, any sense of suspense or momentum is stalled by bouts of weighty philosophizing, and any interest in resolution is deadened by the unrelated tangents. Kimmel (Suing for Peace: A Guide for Resolving Life’s Conflicts), a lawyer, is a deep thinker whose intelligence shines through, but his first foray into fiction fails as both a theological treatise and a page-turner. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME Entertainment.