From Library Journal
Like Parker's first two novels (Suspicion of Innocence, LJ 12/93; Suspicion of Guilt, LJ 2/1/95), this thriller thrusts Miami lawyer Gail Connor into perils from which she emerges owing mostly to luck. Gail, now engaged to Cuban exile Anthony Quintera, also a Miami lawyer, provides legal counsel for the Miami Opera. A promising young singer, Thomas Nolan, is to star in Don Giovanni, but his connections with Castro's Cuba may cause trouble for the opera should they become known. From this rather interesting beginning, the plot wanders further and further afield, until the reader yearns for the inevitable murder. Politics, nostalgia of the Miami exile community, and conflicting memories or reports of Gail's fiance and friends bulk out the story, which hovers uneasily between episodes of Gail and Tony's lovemaking and Gail's getting herself into cliched predicaments (donning a wig to stake out her suspect's movements, breaking into the home of the chief suspect). Sadly, this series demeans both women lawyers and Miami Hispanics. Buy only if you live in Florida and have a lavish book budget.-?Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Information Svcs., Inc., Ridgecrest, Cal.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Readers disappointed that Parker's last two mysteries did not feature attorneys Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana will be delighted to find the Miami twosome at the center of this complex, involving tale. With publisher promotion (including the simultaneous million-copy paperback release of Criminal Justice, 1997), Suspicion should also draw new readers. Parker (who earned Edgar-finalist status for her first effort, Suspicion of Innocence, 1994) uses opera and Central America as effective counterpoints to the confrontation between Cuban and Yankee culture--within Gail and Anthony's romance and within Miami society--which has animated the series. To build business for her new solo practice, Gail takes on the Miami Opera as a client, only to learn of a pending crisis: the rising young bass-baritone scheduled to play Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera sang recently in Castro's Cuba. The singer may be in danger, as may several of Gail's opera contacts who have ties to puzzling aspects of Anthony's past, ties that lead back to Nicaragua in the late 1970s. A satisfying read. Mary Carroll


From Kirkus Reviews
Messy, overplotted third volume in Parker's Suspicion series (Suspicion of Guilt, 1995, etc.) continues the travails of Miami lawyer Gail Connor. Now on her own in a one-woman practice, Connor isn't getting many clients but is enjoying the low-key joys of taking her daughter to soccer games and doing pro bono work for the Miami Opera while spending every night in the arms of her fianc‚, Cuban-born supersuccessful defense lawyer Anthony Quintana. At a swank Opera soir‚e, Connor learns that tenor Tom Nolan, who's booked to open the season, did a series of recitals two years before in Cuba. Though most of the ever-so-sleazy rich folks on the Opera's board couldn't care less about their star's employment history, the city's large population of anti-Castro Cuban refugees might well take offense. Quintana, hoping to be nothing more than Connor's escort, finds himself questioned by board members who are afraid that Quintana's brother-in-law, rabble-rousing anti-Castro radio talk-show host Octavio Reyes, might rally his listeners against them, possibly with the backing of Quintana's vehemently anti-Communist grandfather. While Quintana mutters about not being his brother-in-law's keeper, Connor discovers that her fianc‚ not only harbored Marxist sympathies 20 years previously, but accompanied some of the very same board members on an ill-fated pilgrimage to Nicaragua to help the Sandinistas, a trip resulting in the murder of Quintana's old American girlfriend by a Somozan thug. But was Quintana in any way responsible for her death? Parker plays on Connor's fears about her fianc‚'s past while an assassin picks off members of the Opera board, all of whom have some connection to the Nicaraguan misadventure. The climax, in which Connor stalls for time by persuading the killer to play an opera recording, is too silly for words. All this, and piles of politically correct palaver about Miami's misunderstood Cuban exiles. Even Parker's fans might put this one down. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
A fast-paced ride through the politics and hidden agendas of a sweltering Miami, Suspicion of Deceit is the latest novel in author Barbara Parker's bestselling Suspicion series, featuring upscale attorney Gail Connor. The ironic title works well for all plot threads unraveled in this engaging tale, from personal, terrifying deceptions to those with vast ramifications for a wide array of characters.

When Gail Connor is asked to become the attorney for the Miami Opera, it's for more than the simple reason that she's a damn fine lawyer. The upper echelon has its own objective in inviting her to a fund-raising function—they want to question her boyfriend, Anthony Quintana, on just how the city's Cuban political factions will respond to an opera star's questionable visit to Cuba some two years earlier. If the opera continues to employ opera star Thomas Nolan, there is a chance that the Cuban exile populace might become violent at one of the performances, if they view him as a traitor to his people. Fueling the fire is Anthony's brother-in-law, a commentator for Radio Free Cuba, who not only stokes the rage of his listeners but also finds time to cause troubles between Gail and Anthony. A violent murder—and the wounding of Gail herself—forces Gail to take matters into her own hands. She employs Felix Castillo, a mysterious investigator and longtime friend of Anthony's, to further question contacts in Cuba in order to discover the real nature of Thomas Nolan's visit there.

Yet there is another level of investigation occurring here. Gail is eager to uncovermore of Anthony's past, about which he's been extremely tight-lipped for years. As more of their mutual friends reveal startling truths about Anthony—including the fact that he once spent time in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas—Gail must battle her own suspicions to decide whether she will stand by the man she's come to love or betray him.

Parker is masterful at weaving clandestine situations and the politics of both the past and the present with the pertinent actions of the moment. History—personal and bureaucratic—plays a large part in this novel, and scenes involving Anthony's large family and all their many beliefs, passions, and fiery emotions play out with an incredible vitality that greatly contributes to the flow and grip of the story. Gail and Anthony are a fervent couple, in love but also finding excitement in the friction of ideology that occasionally comes between them. The author refuses to allow for any black-and-white, easy answers at any time. All parties involved are constantly discovering more about themselves and exactly what the cost might be for each conviction and stance taken.

"Suspicion of Deceit" is deceivingly simplistic, but it works on several levels at once, as the main mystery plot element often takes a backseat to equally intriguing story lines of a more personal nature. The gray areas of conflicting opinions lend a credence to the novel that isn't usually found in the more idealistic, hero-versus-villain crime thrillers on the market. It's the author's worldview, and her understanding of human nature, that make this novel one that readers can trust to arrive at a gripping, satisfying, and wholly genuine conclusion.—Tom Piccirilli

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Attorney Gail Connor turned down a partnership in a prestigious Miami law firm to open her own office. As if that wasn't risky enough, she has just become engaged to Anthony Quintana, a top criminal defense lawyer as passionate and unpredictable as he is brilliant. But shadows have begun to gather around Gail's Cuban-born fiance - shadows of secrecy and distrust that make her doubt the man she loves...a man she thought she knew. Twenty years before, a very different Anthony - rebellious and idealistic - traveled to Central America with a lover and two friends. It was a journey that ended in unspeakable tragedy, shattering Anthony's young life and binding him in a conspiracy of silence and shame. Now, as Gail takes on her first major client, the Miami Opera - whose visiting singer may have ties to a Cuban revolutionary movement - Anthony's past and present begin a dangerous collision course that could destroy his entire family and threaten Gail's future.

FROM THE CRITICS

Andy Plonka - The Mystery Reader.com

Suspicion of Deceit is a complex novel of politics and the legal profession....The reader with an interest in politics and a knowledge of the political situations that existed [Cuba and Nicaragua] 20 years ago will probably be intrigued by this story. Without this knowledge, the story is a lot harder to understand....a lengthy novel with a definite political slant.

Publishers Weekly

Miami attorney Gail Connor plunges into volatile Cuban-American politics in her third heady adventure (after Suspicion of Guilt.) When Gail's client, the Miami Opera, hires fast-rising singer Thomas Nolan to star in Don Giovanni, opera managers learn that Nolan recently performed in Havana. Much of Miami's Cuban community sees any such appearance as support for the hated Fidel Castro. Gail asks her fianc, Cuban-born lawyer Anthony Quintana, to intervene with the local exiles. Complicating matters is the fact that Anthony's brother-in-law, Octavio Reyes, leads the anti-Nolan talk on a Miami radio station. Just before a planned appearance on the Reyes show, Seth Greer, an old friend of Quintana and opera director Rebecca Dixon, is shot to death. Because the exiles, however passionate, seldom resort to violence, Gail wonders if Greer's death is related to his long-ago revolutionary work with Quintana and Rebecca in Nicaragua. The possibility leads her to wonder if her lover, who is adamantly secretive about his own history, could be the killer? The story and cast at first seem formulaic: the ever competent heroine, the macho but tender Latin lover, life among wealthy Miamians. The narrative triumphs, however, thanks to Parker's rich mix of tropical politics, edgy romance and secrets from the past. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Like Parker's first two novels (Suspicion of Innocence, LJ 12/93; Suspicion of Guilt, LJ 2/1/95), this thriller thrusts Miami lawyer Gail Connor into perils from which she emerges owing mostly to luck. Gail, now engaged to Cuban exile Anthony Quintera, also a Miami lawyer, provides legal counsel for the Miami Opera. A promising young singer, Thomas Nolan, is to star in Don Giovanni, but his connections with Castro's Cuba may cause trouble for the opera should they become known. From this rather interesting beginning, the plot wanders further and further afield, until the reader yearns for the inevitable murder. Politics, nostalgia of the Miami exile community, and conflicting memories or reports of Gail's fiance and friends bulk out the story, which hovers uneasily between episodes of Gail and Tony's lovemaking and Gail's getting herself into clichéd predicaments (donning a wig to stake out her suspect's movements, breaking into the home of the chief suspect). Sadly, this series demeans both women lawyers and Miami Hispanics. Buy only if you live in Florida and have a lavish book budget. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/97.]Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Information Svcs., Inc., Ridgecrest, Cal.

Andy Plonka - The Mystery Reader.com