By Jeanne Winer (Engl’72; Law’77)
(Bancroft Press, 320 pages; 2018)
Her Kind of Case is a legal drama that centers on Lee Isaacs, a female defense attorney on the cusp of turning 60, who, out of curiosity, determination, and desire for a big, even impossible, professional challenge, chooses to take on a tough murder case in which a largely uncooperative young man is accused of helping kill a gay gang member. The plot takes place in Boulder and Denver.
Jeanne Winer was an attorney in Colorado for 35 years, specializing in criminal defense. During that time, she represented hundreds of people accused of murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery, drug offenses and other serious crimes.
A long-time political activist, Jeanne Winer received the Dan Bradley Award from The National LGBT Bar Association for her trial work in Romer v. Evans, a landmark civil rights case that preceded and paved the way for the Obergefell decision in 2015, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States. Her first novel, The Furthest City Light, won a Golden Crown Literary award for best debut fiction.
Her Kind of Case is her second novel. Like the heroine in her book, Winer is a martial artist who holds a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She lives mainly in Boulder, Colorado with her partner and cat, but spends a number of months each year writing in Taos, New Mexico.