What do you think?
Rate this book
A Shattered Circle: A Novel
After an accident leaves New York City judge William Lonergan mentally impaired, his wife, Barbara, who doubles as the judge’s confidential secretary, is determined to protect his health, his career, and his reputation. Barbara and Larry Seagle, the judge’s law clerk, support Judge Lonergan enough for him to fulfill his judicial duties, keeping his true condition secret. Months pass under this exhausting routine, until suddenly Barbara finds her new way of life under siege.
A private investigator needs Judge Lonergan's help in investigating the murder of a well-known lawyer in upstate New York. A bitter litigant files a grievance against the judge with the Judicial Conduct Commission. Driven by loyalty and guilt, court officer Foxx is looking into a decades-old courthouse murder to exonerate a childhood friend who is dying in prison. He hits many dead ends, until he learns that Barbara Lonergan, who worked as a stenographer long before she married the judge, likely has information about the murder victim.
After the judge is attacked, Barbara decides they should leave New York City. Arriving at their summer house, Barbara believes that she and the judge are safe. She could not be more wrong.
A Shattered Circle by Kevin Egan is a tensely plotted legal thriller set in New York City's iconic 60 Centre Street
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A private investigator needs Judge Lonergan's help in investigating the murder of a well-known lawyer in upstate New York. A bitter litigant files a grievance against the judge with the Judicial Conduct Commission. Driven by loyalty and guilt, court officer Foxx is looking into a decades-old courthouse murder to exonerate a childhood friend who is dying in prison. He hits many dead ends, until he learns that Barbara Lonergan, who worked as a stenographer long before she married the judge, likely has information about the murder victim.
After the judge is attacked, Barbara decides they should leave New York City. Arriving at their summer house, Barbara believes that she and the judge are safe. She could not be more wrong.
A Shattered Circle by Kevin Egan is a tensely plotted legal thriller set in New York City's iconic 60 Centre Street
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
300 pages, Hardcover
Published March 7, 2017
1 person is currently reading
729 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Egan
5 books33 followers Kevin Egan is the author of eight novels and more than 40 short stories.
His first novel, The Perseus Breed, combined a science fiction story-line with strong mystery genre elements. In the book, Borley Share’s obsessive quest to understand the sudden disappearance of his first serious girlfriend uncovers the existence of an alien race using the Earth as a nursery to raise its young.
Writing as Conor Daly, he published a three-book mystery series featuring Kieran Lenahan, who quit the practice of law to become a golf pro. Bouncing between the professional tour and a sedate country club, Kieran cannot shake the problems that bedeviled his legal career.
In Local Knowledge, a dead client’s testamentary request that Kieran auction a set of rare German golf clubs enmeshes him in a murderous conspiracy with roots in World War II.
In Buried Lies, Kieran is falsely accused of torching his own pro shop on the same day that his long-time caddie falls in front of a train. Only Kieran believes that the two events are connected.
In Outside Agency, Kieran wakes up in a strange apartment next to a woman who happens to be dead. He has no memory of who she is or how he got there, but needs to find out fast to save his own neck.
Writing as K.J. Egan, he published Where It Lies, which features Jenny Chase, a single mom and country club pro. This book opens with the apparent suicide of a greenskeeper, who is survived by his wife and autistic teenage son. When the greenskeeper’s life insurer disclaims its million dollar policy based on a suicide clause, Jenny sets out to prove that the death was murder. Along the way, she uncovers even more horrible secrets.
Writing as Kevin Egan, he wrote three legal thrillers primarily set in the New York County Courthouse in lower Manhattan, where he worked for 30 years.
Midnight, a Kirkus Best Book of 2013, is a noir-ish thriller based on a simple premise: when a judge dies, his staff keep their jobs until the end of that calendar year. So when a judge quietly expires in his chambers on the morning of New Year’s Eve, his clerk and secretary face unemployment by close of business. Neither can afford to be out of a job, so they concoct a deceptively simple plan – smuggle the judge’s body out of the courthouse to make it look like he died at home and after the critical hour of midnight. The plan seems to work – until it doesn’t.
In The Missing Piece, the disputed ownership of a fabulous hoard of ancient Roman silver ends up as the subject of a trial in the New York County Courthouse . The ill-fated first trial ends with a courtroom invasion, the shooting of a court officer, and the theft of an urn worth $5 million. Three years later, the parties re-assemble for the re-trial. The judge is secretly pregnant but determined to handle the trial before moving on to the next phase of her life. The paralyzed officer, convinced that the missing piece never left the courthouse, directs a fellow officer on a literal treasure hunt though the iconic building. Meanwhile, the gunmen are circling with an even more daring plan to disrupt the trial.
In A Shattered Circle, a judge is suffering from dementia, and his devoted wife has successfully kept his condition a secret while scrambling to find a treatment that will arrest his steady decline. Then the bad stuff happens. A persistent private investigator needs to question the judge about the murder of a country lawyer – a crime that has no apparent connection to the judge. An angry litigant has filed a judicial complaint, starting a process that could reveal the judge’s dementia. And a court officer who is trying to exonerate a dying friend of an ancient murder has stumbled across a secret the judge’s wife buried long ago..
Kevin’s short fiction has appeared repeatedly in the following mystery magazines: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. His mainstream stories have app
His first novel, The Perseus Breed, combined a science fiction story-line with strong mystery genre elements. In the book, Borley Share’s obsessive quest to understand the sudden disappearance of his first serious girlfriend uncovers the existence of an alien race using the Earth as a nursery to raise its young.
Writing as Conor Daly, he published a three-book mystery series featuring Kieran Lenahan, who quit the practice of law to become a golf pro. Bouncing between the professional tour and a sedate country club, Kieran cannot shake the problems that bedeviled his legal career.
In Local Knowledge, a dead client’s testamentary request that Kieran auction a set of rare German golf clubs enmeshes him in a murderous conspiracy with roots in World War II.
In Buried Lies, Kieran is falsely accused of torching his own pro shop on the same day that his long-time caddie falls in front of a train. Only Kieran believes that the two events are connected.
In Outside Agency, Kieran wakes up in a strange apartment next to a woman who happens to be dead. He has no memory of who she is or how he got there, but needs to find out fast to save his own neck.
Writing as K.J. Egan, he published Where It Lies, which features Jenny Chase, a single mom and country club pro. This book opens with the apparent suicide of a greenskeeper, who is survived by his wife and autistic teenage son. When the greenskeeper’s life insurer disclaims its million dollar policy based on a suicide clause, Jenny sets out to prove that the death was murder. Along the way, she uncovers even more horrible secrets.
Writing as Kevin Egan, he wrote three legal thrillers primarily set in the New York County Courthouse in lower Manhattan, where he worked for 30 years.
Midnight, a Kirkus Best Book of 2013, is a noir-ish thriller based on a simple premise: when a judge dies, his staff keep their jobs until the end of that calendar year. So when a judge quietly expires in his chambers on the morning of New Year’s Eve, his clerk and secretary face unemployment by close of business. Neither can afford to be out of a job, so they concoct a deceptively simple plan – smuggle the judge’s body out of the courthouse to make it look like he died at home and after the critical hour of midnight. The plan seems to work – until it doesn’t.
In The Missing Piece, the disputed ownership of a fabulous hoard of ancient Roman silver ends up as the subject of a trial in the New York County Courthouse . The ill-fated first trial ends with a courtroom invasion, the shooting of a court officer, and the theft of an urn worth $5 million. Three years later, the parties re-assemble for the re-trial. The judge is secretly pregnant but determined to handle the trial before moving on to the next phase of her life. The paralyzed officer, convinced that the missing piece never left the courthouse, directs a fellow officer on a literal treasure hunt though the iconic building. Meanwhile, the gunmen are circling with an even more daring plan to disrupt the trial.
In A Shattered Circle, a judge is suffering from dementia, and his devoted wife has successfully kept his condition a secret while scrambling to find a treatment that will arrest his steady decline. Then the bad stuff happens. A persistent private investigator needs to question the judge about the murder of a country lawyer – a crime that has no apparent connection to the judge. An angry litigant has filed a judicial complaint, starting a process that could reveal the judge’s dementia. And a court officer who is trying to exonerate a dying friend of an ancient murder has stumbled across a secret the judge’s wife buried long ago..
Kevin’s short fiction has appeared repeatedly in the following mystery magazines: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. His mainstream stories have app
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 16, 2017
Enjoyed this book from start to finish! This is my favorite book written by Egan. I didn't want it to end. Read it you will not be disappointed.
July 4, 2019
A Shattered Circle is a superbly crafted legal thriller written with crystalline clarity, giving us an unobstructed view into the inner workings of the legal system, shining a light that deepens shadows drenched in the darker shades of noir. It is like the abrupt pounding of a heavy walnut gavel, falling with skull-cracking authority. Like Egan’s previous novels, Midnight and The Missing Piece, The Shattered Circle’s greatest strength lies in its atmospherics, conjured with vivid descriptions of the iconic New York County courthouse, with its quirky traditions, secrets, and curious inner workings that are vulnerable to corruption.
March 11, 2017
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. This book was very, very good, well written and kept my interest from beginning to end. There are a quite alot of characters and a couple of side stories so you have to pay close attention to who's who. Resembles a good John Grisham novel. Highly recommend!
August 15, 2018
Well done. Legal thrillers are their own thing. Yes, many characters, and at first it was almost impossible to keep track but suddenly every personality was knowable because each had a specific role in the tale.
June 2, 2017
A whole lot of promising buildup, and an underwhelming dwindling down to an unsatisfying end.
March 21, 2017
From the publisher: After an accident leaves New York City judge William Lonergan mentally impaired, his wife, Barbara, who doubles as the judge’s confidential secretary, is determined to protect his health, his career, and his reputation. Barbara and Larry Seagle, the judge’s law clerk, support Judge Lonergan enough for him to fulfill his judicial duties, keeping his true condition secret. Months pass under this exhausting routine, until suddenly Barbara finds her new way of life under siege. A private investigator needs Judge Lonergan’s help in investigating the murder of a well-known lawyer in upstate New York. A bitter litigant files a grievance against the judge with the Judicial Conduct Commission. Driven by loyalty and guilt, court officer Foxx is looking into a decades-old courthouse murder to exonerate a childhood friend who is dying in prison. He hits many dead ends, until he learns that Barbara Lonergan, who worked as a stenographer long before she married the judge, likely has information about the murder victim. After the judge is attacked, Barbara decides they should leave New York City. Arriving at their summer house, Barbara believes that she and the judge are safe. She could not be more wrong.
The opening pages describe the killing of attorney Ken Palmer. The ensuing pages describe the murder of a forensic psychologist, Maxine Rosen, and a former lawyer, Daniel Kaplan, all the fallout of a case which had its origins over two decades earlier. The reader doesn’t learn all the facts behind these killings until two-thirds of the way through the novel, when we also discover who is responsible for all three murders. Along the way we are taken through the routines of the criminal courts in Manhattan and those who work there, by a writer who has spent his entire legal career working in the New York State court system. And a fascinating look it is!
Judge Lonergan, now 66 years old, is able to hold onto his seat on the bench, as well as his reputation, solely by virtue of the efforts of his wife and his law clerk, but now all of that, as well as his very life, is threatened by the same killer. How, or if, the latter succeeds will depend on these same devoted souls. And the tense and suspenseful pages will have the reader engrossed until the end.
Recommended.
The opening pages describe the killing of attorney Ken Palmer. The ensuing pages describe the murder of a forensic psychologist, Maxine Rosen, and a former lawyer, Daniel Kaplan, all the fallout of a case which had its origins over two decades earlier. The reader doesn’t learn all the facts behind these killings until two-thirds of the way through the novel, when we also discover who is responsible for all three murders. Along the way we are taken through the routines of the criminal courts in Manhattan and those who work there, by a writer who has spent his entire legal career working in the New York State court system. And a fascinating look it is!
Judge Lonergan, now 66 years old, is able to hold onto his seat on the bench, as well as his reputation, solely by virtue of the efforts of his wife and his law clerk, but now all of that, as well as his very life, is threatened by the same killer. How, or if, the latter succeeds will depend on these same devoted souls. And the tense and suspenseful pages will have the reader engrossed until the end.
Recommended.
March 18, 2017
I didn't enjoy this book.
It had a convoluted story and was very confusing with far too many characters. Mr. Egan jumped from storyline to storyline frequently, and often I wasn't sure which character was being written about. One scenario where one character was being followed by another character who was being followed be another character seemed too forced.
The premise for all the people being killed for an unconvincing reason was distressing. I have no recommendations on this one.
It had a convoluted story and was very confusing with far too many characters. Mr. Egan jumped from storyline to storyline frequently, and often I wasn't sure which character was being written about. One scenario where one character was being followed by another character who was being followed be another character seemed too forced.
The premise for all the people being killed for an unconvincing reason was distressing. I have no recommendations on this one.
November 14, 2017
A complex plot, with four converging storylines, and lots of red herrings. The resolution wrapped everything up, though not exactly neatly. A very enjoyable read, but the bumpy ending dropped my rating from 5 stars to 4. This was the first I have read from this author, and I will definitely try his previous titles.
July 7, 2017
This book started out slow for me, but once it picked up the story really moved - lots of moving parts and characters - it will keep you guessing - and at the same time trying to understand the characters thoughts and emotions
March 10, 2017
A little confusing in the beginning with so many characters -- good story and good ending.
May 13, 2023
I WANTED to like this book more than I do, so badly. But I have too many qualms over it to really & truly like it.
First issue: y’know those slice of life animes where you follow people just living out their lives? Think of that, with a bunch of somewhat entitled more-than-middle-aged-but-not-senior white men in the legal system. I knew SO much about these dudes that I was bored. The amount of information about these characters seemed unnecessary, minus just making the characters seem less one-sided. Hint, it does not.
Second issue: there were SO many characters. Even halfway through the book, MORE characters were being introduced. Sir, why are you introducing more characters at page 150? I’m already struggling to keep up with the amount of characters already in the book. Going back to the first point, some characters seemed so similar, it was difficult to remember who was who.
However… I did like the book to some extent. It went from a murder mystery to a murder thriller about 3/4 of the way through & it felt natural. I LOVE when media shifts genres in the middle of unfolding. The way every character’s storyline came to be revealed that they are all bound together was beautifully written & had me wanting more. When I finally saw how the two main plots coincided & entangled themselves together, I loved every second of it.
The writing became a bit confusing, outside of characterization, at times, but maybe that was just me deciding to read this book around finals, when I don’t have the brain capacity to read something so strenuous after reading a ton of dense articles.
First issue: y’know those slice of life animes where you follow people just living out their lives? Think of that, with a bunch of somewhat entitled more-than-middle-aged-but-not-senior white men in the legal system. I knew SO much about these dudes that I was bored. The amount of information about these characters seemed unnecessary, minus just making the characters seem less one-sided. Hint, it does not.
Second issue: there were SO many characters. Even halfway through the book, MORE characters were being introduced. Sir, why are you introducing more characters at page 150? I’m already struggling to keep up with the amount of characters already in the book. Going back to the first point, some characters seemed so similar, it was difficult to remember who was who.
However… I did like the book to some extent. It went from a murder mystery to a murder thriller about 3/4 of the way through & it felt natural. I LOVE when media shifts genres in the middle of unfolding. The way every character’s storyline came to be revealed that they are all bound together was beautifully written & had me wanting more. When I finally saw how the two main plots coincided & entangled themselves together, I loved every second of it.
The writing became a bit confusing, outside of characterization, at times, but maybe that was just me deciding to read this book around finals, when I don’t have the brain capacity to read something so strenuous after reading a ton of dense articles.
August 18, 2017
New characters were being introduced almost every chapter until about 100 pages. I finally thought it was over and then another murder took place adding even more characters.
I think the author tried to do too much. Readers received an info dump of one-dimensional characters that nobody cared about dying. I felt like I needed to be a real detective with a huge murder board to keep everybody straight and show their connections. Fun in theory, but nobody has time for that.
I finally gave up reading about half way through and moved on to other books I felt a connection to.
I think the author tried to do too much. Readers received an info dump of one-dimensional characters that nobody cared about dying. I felt like I needed to be a real detective with a huge murder board to keep everybody straight and show their connections. Fun in theory, but nobody has time for that.
I finally gave up reading about half way through and moved on to other books I felt a connection to.
June 2, 2023
It was ridiculously difficult to follow this book. There were so many characters and stories happening at one time. Two main story lines were being told that connected all of the characters, but you don’t realize that until much later in the book as things start connecting. I read the book in four days and still struggled to follow it. I think maybe if only one of those main story lines was being told, it would have been much more enjoyable for me.
August 11, 2022
Was very disappointed. It promised to be a real thriller wasn’t
October 27, 2024
This book ishard to follow and the ending didn’t wow me in the way I expected.
February 19, 2017
Copy courtesy of NetGalley
Good story, with interesting outcomes, it just dragged on too long which is frustrating.
Good story, with interesting outcomes, it just dragged on too long which is frustrating.
Read
July 28, 2017PW
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews