Books about divorce (even wrenching, conflicted ones) are nothing new to the market: Kramer vs. Kramer and many others have well followed the process and emotions involved in separation. What is new in The Reform Artists is a spy thriller and a courtroom drama that revolves around false allegations of domestic abuse. This book goes beyond interpersonal confrontation by blending the legal thriller format with the unique emotional challenges associated with high-conflict divorce tactics.

It opens with the bang of a thriller: Character Heather Barnes is speeding (and screaming) along streets in her car, as she panics over a precious cell phone call that cannot be made.

The next instant, news of a triple murder/suicide from an apparent case of domestic violence flashes across news screens. All has been lost, and events seem to constitute a cut-and-dried case - or, do they?

The pleasure in The Reform Artists is that nothing is as it seems. As in any superior, complex read, a host of seemingly disparate characters are introduced (here, in staccato-quick scenes) who at first seem to bear no relationship to one another. As events unwind, so do the lives, motivations, and personalities of everyone involved, with dissolving marriages and violence permeating a cast of characters destined to come together under the most unlikely of circumstances.

Business relationships gone awry, dubious contacts, husbands and wives and their attorneys, and approaches to resolution that more than skirt the law: All these elements are presented in a legal thriller and spy story that takes the domestic violence topic and turns it upside down.

Courtroom scenes and angry, scared men could easily have turned The Reform Artists into a legal thriller alone, but Reisfeld is careful to include the emotional twists that involve readers in character lives outside the courtroom: "Judge Farnsworth touched his throbbing cheek. He was no longer in his front hallway, but miles away, standing barefoot on a cold, dark street, still in his robe. He held a small, hastily stuffed suitcase in his right hand. He felt lost, ashamed — and alone."

Any action - even the most heinous of choices - can be explained by understanding the emotions and rationales behind them. The Reform Artists offers powerful testimony both to the legal process's finer art of examination and cross-examination and the hearts, minds, choices and logic of protagonists who try to find a way out of impossible circumstances.

All this makes for a powerful blend of legal proceeding and emotional revelation especially recommended for fans of Grisham who seek courtroom drama paired with intrigue and cemented by emotional connections throughout.

D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review