I very rarely stumble across a book that I just did not care that much for, but this book is one of them. This review is based on an advance copy. The book is based on the Carolee Koster case of the woman who worked at Chase Manhatten in the 1970s and sued throughout the 1980s for sexual harassment and equal pay. She lost appeal after appeal until it got to Judge Richard Doronco who also turned her down, but this time, her father, a retired cop, Charles had had enough and shot him dead in his home and then turned the gun on himself. The author imagines a back story to go with the bare facts of the case.
In this book, an FBI agent is on the fringes of the judge's shooting, but there's nothing to investigate since the killer took his life. She does, however, find a note in his shoe that indicates a diary is located in his trailer. She uncovers it and makes copies of it to read from before turning the note and the diary over to her boss. The next thing she knows the note and the diary are gone. The more she reads of the diary the more she understands why that happened as it is about corruption in the law enforcement ranks and politics. She decides to hold onto the diary and research it all she can and to turn it into a fictional book to be published when she leaves the bureau.
Part of her research involves going to the library and part of it involves breaking into people's houses and making copies of their diaries. Yes, you have to suspend quite a bit of belief to believe that these many people kept diaries. But it was the only way the author could feasibly move the story along the way she had written it so I was able to make that leap. She collects diaries from Ida Callaghan, the one who sued for sexual harassment, Lorcan Whelan, the president of the bank where the harassment took place, and Judge Vincente Brunetti, the judge of her case who was killed.
It seems that the bank was involved with some corruption that involved the cops and politicians that Ida's dad stumbled onto when he was a cop but wasn't able to shut down, which is where Ida comes along in that she probably uncovered something and had to be gotten rid of before the house of cards comes tumbling down.
You get the distinct feeling that the author does not like men as there are no sympathetic male characters in the book. Even Bradley Callaghan, the cop father who shoots the judge is not all that likable. He's set up to be this perfect cop who can't get ahead because he didn't go to college or the military or play the corruption game. He's even forced off the job because he digs his nose in where it doesn't belong. The rest of the men are sleazeballs and crooks most of whom believe in sexually harassing women. She is also against marriage and goes off on a long tirade against it and has not one married couple in her book happy, including Ida's parents. This isn't a realistic look at the world and while this is fiction, fiction does mirror society and men are complex creatures just as women are. Ida is no saint in this book, either. To be honest I'd never heard of the Chase Manhatten case before and this book really educated me on its story by making me look up the particulars. It also educated me on how bad things were and are today with sexual harassment cases and how hard it is to win one. While the writing is good, I just think the author could have done a better job getting her story across.
For more info on the Chase Manhattan case: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/05/22/The-killer-of-a-federal-judge-gunned-down-at/5229580276800/
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Burden-Persuasion-Anna-Faktorovich/dp/1681143232/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1503927041&sr=8-1&keywords=the+burden+of+persuasion
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