“A major scientific merger, a kind of synergy … of nanotechnology and molecular electronics …” with genetics used as software!
Pretty heady stuff,“A major scientific merger, a kind of synergy … of nanotechnology and molecular electronics …” with genetics used as software!
Pretty heady stuff, “new modalities of treating diseases”, “a genetic gold rush” with “hundreds of billions of dollars at stake”! You’d think that technology like this could serve as the basis for a pretty nifty legal or suspense thriller with so much of that prime mover (money, of course) at stake. But the reality is that THE JURY was at best a workmanlike procedural that failed to ignite my interest the way so many of Steve Martini’s past Paul Madriani thrillers did.
When I finished the book, I immediately posted my 3-star rating with no small measure of disappointment. A little over a week later, when I sat down to prepare my detailed review, I was shocked to realize that I recalled virtually nothing about any details of the plot on which I might pass comment. All I’m left with is the realization that my initial rating of THE JURY as nothing more than a moderate passable read must have been right on.
Turnover was ridiculous and morale was somewhere between low and non-existent at Florida’s Board on Judicial Conduct.
Well, you’ve got to admit that ifTurnover was ridiculous and morale was somewhere between low and non-existent at Florida’s Board on Judicial Conduct.
Well, you’ve got to admit that if Aileen Cannon is a real-life example of the judiciary shenanigans which the BJC would be required to examine, low morale ought not to come as a great shock! But I digress … kinda!
THE JUDGE’S LIST is the story of Jeri Crosby’s obsessive hunt for a serial killer spanning more than twenty years. With intuition and detective skills that would rightfully embarrass the FBI and any number of municipal police departments, Crosby has accumulated a barrel full of circumstantial evidence suggesting that a well-respected, practicing Florida judge is a relentlessly patient, ruthless, sociopathic, and very skilled serial murderer with over 10 kill notches on his gavel. His knowledge of police procedure, forensics and, of course, the law has been a shield that kept even his existence as a serial killer off police radar. Knowing that her information would be summarily dismissed by police agencies as unfounded and meaningless, Crosby has lodged an official complaint against the erstwhile judge killer with the BJC. Lacy Stoltz, in her position as interim Executive Director of the board, has 45 days to assess the complaint and determine how to proceed. The clock is ticking and Stoltz and Crosby are only too aware that their names have been added to the killer’s target list of future victims.
In past novels, John Grisham has had the ability to make his thrillers pertinent to the real world and to current affairs dealing with issues ranging from elections to racism or capital punishment, for example. THE JUDGE’S LIST does not achieve membership on that elite list. But, you can be assured that it is a high-speed, compelling and completely gripping legal and suspense thriller that will entertain you from first page to last. Like so many other thrillers of this nature, the story details aren’t likely to stick with you for very long but it will be an easy and assured pleasure to recall how much you enjoyed the reading while it lasted.
“I guess I hadn’t reckoned on the possibility of getting myself killed over a simple motion for new trial.”
Ambition, intelligence, drive, and hard“I guess I hadn’t reckoned on the possibility of getting myself killed over a simple motion for new trial.”
Ambition, intelligence, drive, and hard work took Billy Strobe to the top of his class in law school. Then greed and a short term loss of judgment and integrity took him to prison for a less than peaceful sojourn cooling his heels and cost him his chance at admission to the bar after his participation in an insider-trader stock market scam went south. But his time behind bars actually strengthened a determination to study law, effectively by correspondence, to clear the name of his father who had committed suicide as a result of allegations of fraud, and to earn a new trial for a fellow inmate whom he had come to believe was railroaded by incompetent representation and wrongfully convicted of murder.
BILLY STROBE, a relatively lengthy novel at 530 pages, was actually two stories.
The first was the jaw-dropping, gut-wrenching, and shockingly brutal story of Billy Strobe’s life behind bars after his imprisonment for a multi-million dollar securities fraud – contraband, drugs, prison weapons, prison lawyers, black market, “protection”, rape, punitive isolation, effectively internecine prisoner warfare as inmates beat or kill one another for the flimsiest of reasons under the less than watchful eye of the prison staff. Wow! Just wow!
The second half of the novel involved Strobe’s release from prison, his admission to the bar, and his recruitment to a high-flyin’ law firm as the token showpiece in a marketing campaign to demonstrate the firm’s commitment to “equal opportunity” and their willingness to offer a “second chance” to convicted felons. The story of Strobe’s period of grotesque working slavery as a non-partner associate in a legal firm, his investigation into his father’s life and the search for an alibi for his prison friend (not to mention the real murderer, in this case) is a top rate thriller that culminates in a gripping courtroom scene. Martel even offers laugh-out-loud comedic moments as Strobe struggles to fill the role of criminal defense lawyer with absolutely zero experience.
Definitely recommended for those that enjoy the legal thriller genre.
“I had turned a felony battery charge into a righteous case of self-defense in front of the jury.”
Mickey Hall“It had been a good day for the defense.”
“I had turned a felony battery charge into a righteous case of self-defense in front of the jury.”
Mickey Haller was a teetotaler. An on-the-wagon sober alcoholic who hadn’t had a drink in more than five years. But, like the proverbial golfer celebrating that delicious hole-in-one in the clubhouse, he still took his colleagues and staff to a local watering hole to celebrate the win. As he leaves the bar and is pulled over in what is later characterized as a routine traffic stop, the police find the recently murdered body of a former client in Haller’s trunk. Charged with murder and unable to raise the $5 million bail required to get back onto the streets, Haller is forced to run his own defense from a jail cell. But Haller knows a simple “not guilty” verdict won’t save his career or stop him from being forever painted as the lawyer who ducked a murder charge on a legal technicality. The only thing that will save him is to find the actual murderer and to earn a full acquittal. That’s THE LAW OF INNOCENCE.
THE LAW OF INNOCENCE might be a straightforward legal procedural with a short and sweet linear timeline but it is gripping, entertaining from first page to last, and even heartwarming as Haller’s friends, family and colleagues rally round him to help with a defense against what looks to be a slam-dunk conviction by the Los Angeles DA’s office. As a novel, it can probably be read as a stand-alone but the characters and their continuing development will mean so much more and be infinitely more entertaining if you’re familiar with the Harry Bosch and THE LINCOLN LAWYER back stories.
Watch Mickey Haller tip toe along the line dividing brilliant legal defense strategy from criminal contempt of court and enjoy this wonderful addition to the continuing Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch series. Definitely recommended.
It's not a "legal thriller", it's a "legal procedural"!
Despite being firmly slotted into the legal thriller genre, Steve Martini's novel Double Tap isIt's not a "legal thriller", it's a "legal procedural"!
Despite being firmly slotted into the legal thriller genre, Steve Martini's novel Double Tap is most unequivocally not a thriller. And while that may sound like bad news for potential readers and existing Steve Martini fans, that statement is most unequivocally not a condemnation or criticism of what is an exceptionally interesting novel.
The story is simple. Madelyn Chapman is a powerful, wealthy, beautiful, and extremely self-indulgent business woman - the CEO of a high-tech software firm whose main customer is the US government. She has been found in her home murdered with two very tightly grouped gunshot wounds to the head. This particular style of murder is called a "double tap" in the trade and is typically the signature of a professional assassin who, by the bye, is also a superb marksman.
The case against Emiliano Ruiz, a career soldier, is rock solid and defense attorney Paul Madriani is worried about his inability to explain certain obvious gaps in his client's military résumé that Ruiz steadfastly refuses to clarify. In the face of almost overwhelming evidence against his client, Madriani doggedly investigates the case and begins to bump into dangerous secrets that the government, the military and the new CEO of Chapman's firm would prefer stay under the darkest and deepest cover.
In the same manner as a police procedural is not a suspense thriller, Double Tap is not a legal thriller. It's definitely a legal procedural with an almost encyclopedic wealth of fascinating minutiae on the details of a trial for capital murder - the pre-trial investigations that would be undertaken by a defense attorney; motions and counter motions; side bars; forensic examination of evidence; objections sustained and over-ruled; side bars; characterization and selection of "expert" witnesses; potential grounds for appeal and mistrial; jury selection; discovery; arraignment; witness lists; required disclosure of evidence; media coverage; and much, much more.
Steve Martini's description of Emiliano Ruiz's trial for murder was compelling and utterly absorbing - the proverbial page turner, to be sure - but, sadly, the ending when it came was almost anti-climactic. In all fairness, the clues were all there and the characters had definitely been introduced in the course of the novel. To call the ending "deus ex machina" would be quite incorrect. But, in comparison with the body of the novel, it arrived with a bit of a thud and was definitely a let down.
One star reduction from what would otherwise have been a five star barn burner. Highly recommended.
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