Good Intentions

By: J. D. Trafford

Narrated by: Will Damron

Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

An Amazon Charts bestseller.

A harrowing legal thriller from the bestselling author of Little Boy Lost.

Judge Jim Thompson’s world is unraveling. He’s facing public backlash on a decision-gone-wrong for a young boy in foster care and, even worse, he’s just discovered that his mentor, Judge Meyer, has been murdered.

Despite his self-doubt in the face of media scrutiny, Jim is determined to continue his friend’s legacy - and find his killer. As he digs into the mysterious death, Jim comes across a case that had haunted the judge for decades - a case he couldn’t let go of. Judge Meyer had worked hard to find the right solutions for foster children, but rulings in such cases are never simple, and his decisions may have cost him his life.

As Jim searches for answers, he begins to see similarities between his mentor’s past and his own present. Now it’s up to him to learn from his late friend’s mistakes and track down a killer - before he loses everything that matters to him.

©2018 J.D. Trafford (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

I couldn't predict who did it in this one!

This is a very well written book. I did enjoy Little Boy Lost more, but that does not take anything away from this book.
I liked the recently appointed family court judge, Jim Thompson. Known around the court house as kitten. Although fairly mind mannered and hesitant to make decisions that end a parent's parental rights permanently he tries to do the best for the children whose parents end up in his courtroom. When his friend and mentor is murdered he's positive it has to do with an old case of his. One where he chose to end a single mother's rights. Thompson will not rest until he finds out who those children are and why it haunted the older judge. Even if it costs him his seat on the bench.
Very enjoyable with just enough courtroom drama to classify this as a legal thriller.
If you have kindle unlimited this book is FREE (to borrow).
Will Damron does an excellent job narrating.
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A different legal thriller!

In GOOD INTENTIONS protagonist Jim Thompson is a 33 year old very inexperienced family court judge who must make decisions on whether parents can keep their parental rights in cases where their children have been abused or not cared for. Thompson's mentor, a long term family court judge, is murdered, so the complex plot is mostly about how Thompson with the aid of his physician wife handles both the murder case, his family court cases, and his career issues. Will Damron's narration is superb.

Great read and listen..

So, another first person book written by a man that wasn’t half bad. But I really couldn’t tell you if our MC, Judge Jim Thompson, was tall, short, bearded, bald, a head full of hair, fat, thin, or pigeon-toed. No idea why male authors want to keep the characters looks a secret from the readers.

However, it was a really good book. The mystery of who killed Judge Harry Meyer, Jim’s close friend and a mentor. At the end it told of the trouble Judge Thompson got into for looking into, and solving, the murder. I thought that was kind of strange. It was also about the case of 4 kids being taken from their parents and the parents losing their parental rights, and the POS father who wanted them back.

It was a good courtroom drama and police procedural story that I enjoyed.

There was absolutely no sex, only about 4 kisses on the cheek and the F-bomb was used 1 time when a lawyer simply repeated what his client said. There was actually no swearing to speak of: he** was used 3 times, da*n 4 times and that's it. It wasn’t like real life so I can’t see myself reading this author again. I wanted a REAL life murder mystery, swearwords and all. I need to find some really gritty mysteries, don’t I?

As to the narration: This was my first listen of Will Damron and he was awesome. He read with emotions and his women’s voices were perfect.

Very engaging

This is a book I couldn’t stop listening to. It was intriguing to the point that each chapter kept drawing me to the next. I truly enjoyed the book.

Wonderful!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! Once I got started, I couldn’t stop listening. The main character was so calm and reasonable- what you would assume a judge would be. Look forward to another Will Damron adventure.

Solid legal story

I really enjoyed this book about a family court judge. The story is about seeking integrity and how making a bad choice can lead a person down a long, miserable road. The narrator was great. It kept my interest throughout and I thought the judge character was well developed.

Good book that most should enjoy listening to

A very interesting book that had a good flow and carried you along to the end. There were a few instances that were rather unrealistic that took my rating down from a 5 to a 3 1/2. (Spoiler) ! !
The worst was near the end when the judge positively knew the jailbird father was a very serious & dangerous risk.... the police were looking for him and the judge was sure he had already been to his house, enough to buy a high price security system and install it .....but he still left his home with his wife sleeping in bed ! When the place detective called him concerned for his wifes safety, the judge turned around & raced back home and traveling at high speed intentionally crashed into the suspects car that was sitting in front of his house ! seemingly not caring if the guy was in his house molesting his wife or killing her ! Prior to that he got drunk and then to make the srory more unbelievable he then tried to drive home "forgot" ! to turn his headlights on and got stopped by the police ! just way too extreme to be believable :-( does too much to make the character unbelievable !

Good Intentions by J.D. Trafford

This was my first book I've listened to by this author. I'm so glad I chanced doing so. Excellent , so glad I did. From beginning to end the story keeps you captivated. Thank- you.

it is ok. kills time

it is ok.it makes the time pass. the setup is a little confusing. and the end is anticlimactic.

Eh.

Everyone is a little ridiculous, but the most ridiculous thing is how often the main character brings up his and his wife’s enormous school debt, how they’re broke, they can only afford cheap furniture, blah blah blah, yet he mentions his Land Rover about fifty times throughout the book. Never “got in my car” or “started my car”, always “Range rover this and that”. Absurd.

Edit:
He also crashes his precious land rover at 80 mph into another car, yet miraculously emerges unhurt. He also has an impossibly responsive dog who lets go of prey (the bad guy whose car he just crashed into at high speed) with only a verbal command even though a strong point is made to say the dog had never been trained. The author might have had good intentions in writing this book, but really the fact that everyone in the reviews seems to think this DWI dodging (oh yeah forgot to mention that this wonderful judge drives very very drunk for no reason), financially irresponsible, and unrealistic character is believable shows the bad reputation that officials in the cj system have. Don't bother.