“Poet. Teacher. Warrior. The best trial lawyers are all three at once,” observes Ty Buchanan in Bell’s good-natured third suspense novel to feature the quixotic L.A. lawyer (after Try Darkness) who lives in a trailer and provides legal services at St. Monica’s, a little Benedictine community. When Buchanan defends a client who insists on fighting a DUI charge despite the score the client registered on the Intoximeter, he fulfills the teacher function by giving the attractive prosecuting attorney, Kimberly Pincus, a lesson she’ll never forget. He turns warrior after an anonymous e-mailer’s ominous threats to Sister Mary Veritas, a sparky St. Monica’s nun, escalate. And poetically, Buchanan, uses a Beatles tune at a critical juncture. Bell infuses the legal maneuverings with enough humor, insight and intelligence to merit an exception to Shakespeare’s admonition to kill all the lawyers.

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