A jaw-dropping exposé of the realities of American presidential politics and US voting culture!
The premise of NO SAFE PLACE is simplicity itself. It’A jaw-dropping exposé of the realities of American presidential politics and US voting culture!
The premise of NO SAFE PLACE is simplicity itself. It’s a fictional biography of Kerry Kilcannon from a rough and tumble youngster, the child of Irish immigrants, through to his election as a senator climaxing with his contesting the crucial battleground of the California primary as the Democrat nominee for president. It’s dramatic, provocative, evocative, frightening, gut-wrenching, compelling and awesome in its realistic depiction of the insanity that is the American electoral system.
A handful of quotations will serve to portray the flavor of Patterson’s brilliant achievement:
On the character, capabilities, and competence of 20th century politicians: “Politicians were … petty men taking small chances for selfish reasons, trying to manipulate just enough of a cynical public to keep themselves in office.” or “A candidate should make speeches … not decisions. Decisions are too important.” and the succinct characterization “… everything that’s wrong with politics in the nineties – cowardice masked as cleverness, leadership b poll, symbolic gestures, careful attention to special interests.”
One might go so far as to say that NO SAFE PLACE was a door-stopper size condemnation of the entire political process in the USA which, in my opinion, is eminently warranted and absolutely deserved.
On racism and illegal immigration: “You and I will never live to see the day that being a white guy isn’t a better deal. And you have illegals in California partly because whites want cheap labor.”
On the 2nd Amendment: “The notion that James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights so that racists and sociopaths and madmen could slaughter innocent men, women, and children with assault weapons or handguns is one of the most contemptible notions that an irresponsible minority has ever crammed down the throats of its potential victims.”
On electioneering and political campaigning: “ … we have a ‘shoot to kill’ political culture premised on permanent scandal, where people in both parties don’t just try to win but to destroy each other with charges and countercharges. And I’ve stopped counting the number of special prosecutors there are.” (Aileen Cannon, are you paying attention? But I digress!)
On the country’s attitude toward its own military and veterans: “One of the ugliest truths of Vietnam was that the Americans who died there were disproportionately poor, disproportionately black, disproportionately less educated. And one of its ugliest legacies is the elitist notion the only men and women who now need serve our country are those for whom the military is a jobs program.”
Electoral reform, abortion, right-to-life and evangelical Christianity (obviously) popped up their heads repeatedly for consideration in a novel that, in a single phrase, needs to be read.
“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.
An obsessive-compulsive minor hires an all female law firm to re-open a stone cold wrongful conviction case! Say what??
I’m not sure where authors of An obsessive-compulsive minor hires an all female law firm to re-open a stone cold wrongful conviction case! Say what??
I’m not sure where authors of legal procedurals and thrillers or screenwriters got the idea that lawyers could always come up with the solutions to mysteries and crimes that evaded entire police forces but … it is what it is and this is one more!
Six years ago, a young black man serving at a ritzy catered party, was apprehended fleeing the scene of the murder of a wealthy family’s daughter. A mountain of circumstantial evidence, such as the victim’s blood on his clothes, not to mention a guilty plea in court, ensured an easy conviction. Lonnie Stall was imprisoned for murder and the cell key was thrown away. But Allegra Gardner, the victim’s young sister - still a minor and to all appearances suffering from what appears to be a complex mixture of mental issues - has used her trust funds to hire the newly formed all-female law firm of Rosato & DeNunzio to reopen the case and address what Gardner insists is a wrongful conviction.
Kudos to author Scottoline for penning a compelling tale and adding plenty of delicious side dishes to accompany the basic meat and potatoes of this procedural investigation – OCD and other mental issues; minor emancipation; involuntary commitment; beekeeping; wealth and privilege; female lawyers and misogyny; racism; prayer and religious beliefs; and more. ACCUSED isn’t going to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize or a Nobel Prize in literature. Nor will it ever be characterized with the moniker “classic” but for lovers of the legal thriller and legal procedural genres who are looking for several hours of easygoing page-turning entertainment, ACCUSED is a sure-fire winner.
“There’s no middle ground. Whatever’s there gets crushed to powder by the sides.”
The USA is unquestionably a country divided. Today that near unbr“There’s no middle ground. Whatever’s there gets crushed to powder by the sides.”
The USA is unquestionably a country divided. Today that near unbridgeable gap reflects the ever widening gulf between so-called left-wing socialists and hard core right wing Trump supporters the world increasingly labels as fascist. It wasn’t always that way. In the mid- to late 20th century that cultural gap was based on race and color. White was white and black was black and, as has been pointed out, there was no middle ground. Segregation was the expected natural state and integration was fought against by virtually every state of the union. Rights for embattled (and embittered) negroes were denied at every turn despite their ostensible assurance under law.
In search of an oasis of repose, peace, and mental healing for his troubled and confused daughter after the death of his wife, Penn Cage, a skilled prosecuting attorney turned best-selling author, has returned to his home in Natchez, Mississippi, a jewel of the antebellum south and a hotbed of simmering racial tension that never cooled over the fifty years that had passed since the Jim Crow era ended.
In search of calm? Good luck with that! THE QUIET GAME sets Penn Cage against his father’s blackmailer, the highest levels of municipal, state, and federal government administration and the courts, as well as local police and the FBI who would go to any lengths to keep the town’s darkest secret covered – the thirty year old cold case murder of a black Korean war veteran. And, of course, no self-respecting thriller would neglect the possibility of romance. Despite the unwavering love, respect, and memories he has for his dear departed wife, Cage finds himself drawn inevitably into warm feelings for a young newspaper publisher who has her eyes firmly fixed on the possibility of a Pulitzer prize.
THE QUIET GAME is an eyebrow-raising, jaw-dropping, gripping thriller from first page to last that draws unflinchingly on the ugly side of American culture that is racism, political power games and cover-ups, wealth, corruption, and entitlement, and (of course) guns, guns, and more guns! Definitely recommended.
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.
An already dying man strolls through death’s door a little earlier than expected! Natural death, suicide, assisted suicide, or capital first degree muAn already dying man strolls through death’s door a little earlier than expected! Natural death, suicide, assisted suicide, or capital first degree murder?
Fans of John Lescroart could certainly be forgiven for picking up THE MERCY RULE expecting a suspense or legal thriller. After all, that’s how Lescroart rolls and his body of work speaks for itself. But, for my money, it’s much more accurate to describe THE MERCY RULE as comparable to a Jodi Picoult work in which some “issue” is raised, explored and addressed with a provocative plot that simply puts questions before its readers and leaves them to mentally explore the options to find the answers for themselves. Well, maybe, maybe not!
In this case, the issue is the right to a dignified death in the face of terminal disease or incurable injury, pain, suffering, and the loss of dignity; the deterioration of the mental capacity for self-determination; the ethics and legality of assisted suicide; the question as to whether assisted suicide is legally murder, in fact, first degree murder and possibly subject to capital punishment; and, of course, the intransigent response from organized religion that assisted suicide flies in the face of the plans of a deity whose wishes are not subject to mere human opposition.
An interesting presentation of the opposing sides of the question:
First, assisted suicide was presented as a “liberty interest issue, not too dissimilar to abortion. Provided, of course, you’ve got cruise control … CRUIS – competent, rational, uncoerced, informed, stable.”
And then there is the typical opposition to suicide or assisted suicide from a zealous, dogmatic Christian community:
There is “great caring, great love, great sacrifice, and great nobility in the face of death. But the end of pain is a blessing from God, and ministering to that end is the true meaning of Christianity.” Or (in my considered opinion, even worse and, frankly, quite disgusting) the sanctimonious Mother Theresa approach which sees virtue, blessing, and even good fortune in the pain and suffering inflicted by an all-knowing God, “suffering was part of life. It had a purpose. It ennobled and strengthened the sprit, especially when offered up to the glory of God.”
No prizes for guessing which side of the issue I found myself cheering for as a compelling trial drama unfolded in the novel.
THE MERCY RULE is a long novel – indeed, a door-stopper by most any reader’s standards. If you’re looking for the “suspense” or the “thrills” of a typical suspense or legal thriller, my guess is you’ll be disappointed and find the novel unduly long or even dragging. If you let it be an exploration of a pertinent 21st century issue, it’s a sure-fire winner.
“I keep seeing Frank’s head … I’ve never seen so much blood.”
Lots of legal meat and potatoes in Margolin’s THE PERFECT ALIBI - the defense of a ma“I keep seeing Frank’s head … I’ve never seen so much blood.”
Lots of legal meat and potatoes in Margolin’s THE PERFECT ALIBI - the defense of a man accused of killing a drunk cop; rape and all things rape; the murder of a partner in a law firm fired for inadequate defense in a rape trial; obstruction of justice and prosecutorial misconduct; jailhouse snitches; wealth, privilege and entitlement. In short, a veritable cornucopia of plots and sub-plots that weave in and out of each other creating a Gordian knot of suspense and twisted legal dynamics. And that perfect alibi? I’d say that being in prison when a rape is committed for which you would otherwise be the prime suspect is pretty air-tight!
Enjoyable but not up to scratch when compared with some of Margolin’s other efforts. I think the novel would have been better served by saving a sub-plot or two from this banquet and serving them up in a separate novel
“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.
A gritty, racially and politically motivated, slow burning but intensely heated thriller!
“The African Nation platform is clear,” says a black activistA gritty, racially and politically motivated, slow burning but intensely heated thriller!
“The African Nation platform is clear,” says a black activist to a black female power politician on a fast track to the presidency.
“… when you say you want a voice, you want representation, the end of oppression, you want the laws applied fairly – who doesn’t? But then you go on to say you want your own separate system, and that just don’t fly. Can’t you see that? The numbers aren’t there, and the numbers drive the dollars. You want to take over a state? Move the people back to Africa? You want a black Israel on some sand in Africa? That what you want?” responds that black politician!
Given a lack of evidence and the clear certainty that a black punk car-jacker would be acquitted if he were brought to trial for murder, San Francisco’s DA drops the charges and reluctantly releases the suspect. But even in San Francisco, a city known for its diversity, tolerance and compassion, that’s a bridge too far. To many, the guilt of the black man who had been arrested was obvious and a conviction for murder should have been a slam-dunk inevitability. A mob of hot-headed white racists, fueled, of course, by generous helpings of alcohol and chest-thumping, lynch an unfortunate black man in response to what they claimed was an outrageous piece of reverse racial inequity.
But one young man in that mob, caught up in the emotions of the moment, knows that what is happening is beyond wrong. During his frantic attempts to rescue the innocent black man from a brutal racial murder at the hands of the now unstoppable mob, a passing journalist’s chance photograph portrays him as the mob’s motivator and the prime mover behind the ugly hanging. The young man is forced to go into hiding and San Francisco is faced with a repeat of Los Angeles Rodney King race riots!
A CERTAIN JUSTICE is not a high speed thriller but it’s definitely gripping. It’s a story motivated by the obvious reality that racism (not to mention misogyny) is a problem that is not a right wing-left wing issue. It’s an endemic problem and the USA would be well advised to read this novel to remind themselves that their society is anything but fair, tolerant, compassionate or post-racial.
And, by-the-bye, A CERTAIN JUSTICE is the debut novel of the now well established Abe Glitsky/Dismas Hardy series. What a great beginning! No wonder I’m a fan.
“Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren’t that different.”
Olek Volchek, the local kingpin of the “Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren’t that different.”
Olek Volchek, the local kingpin of the Russian Mafia, is in the dock for murder. And the FBI has a slam-dunk witness whose rock solid incontrovertible testimony constitutes the sure win for the prosecution, under tighter lock and key and more safely guarded than the main vaults in Fort Knox. And that has placed Eddie Flynn, Volchek’s defense lawyer, into a rather prickly pickle. Volchek’s last resort was to kidnap Flynn’s young daughter and to weaponize the lawyer himself – to force him to wear a small tactical bomb into court and to plant it underneath the witness chair. Boom … no witness, no conviction!
And there you have it! A simple but wickedly ingenious evil premise and THE DEFENCE wins my recommendation as one of the fastest, most gripping, high speed legal thrillers that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read!
The story is told in a convincing first person narrative style in absolutely linear real-time with nary a single deviation over the period of the three day duration of the trial and what an exciting story it is! Flynn’s character development is brilliant as Cavanagh manages to make him tread that razor thin edge between deceptive and cleverly unscrupulous versus flat out illegal. Think of ANY of the time-worn chestnuts and tired tropes that are commonly plastered on the back cover marketing fluff for lesser contenders for entry into the crowded thriller genre – “pedal to the metal on page one”, “never lets you go”, “you’ll be reading into the wee hours”, “an exhilarating roller-coaster ride”, “will take your breath away” … they ALL apply without the least exaggeration!
And BONUS – this is the debut novel for Eddie Flynn’s character in a series that now holds such extraordinary promise. Definitely recommended and I’m on the hunt for a copy of #2 THE PLEA.
In Mississippi “between 1818 and 1940 … approximately six hundred black men were lynched by mobs operating outside the legal system and thoroughly immIn Mississippi “between 1818 and 1940 … approximately six hundred black men were lynched by mobs operating outside the legal system and thoroughly immune from any of its repercussions”
John Grisham’s THE RECKONING is not the typical legal thriller that we have come to expect from him. It is a legal procedural drama and historical fiction centered around themes of war and violence, hatred, xenophobia, racism, misogyny, and jealousy. As you might imagine, it is not a pretty novel. It is not uplifting and it is not easy to read.
The first part – Act I if you will – tells the story of Pete Banning’s return from the Philippines, an acclaimed war hero, a successful cotton farmer, and a prosperous landowner, well known and greatly respected in his church and around his small southern community. Then, out of the blue, he walked into the church and calmly murdered the Reverend Dexter Bell. If he had a motive, he wasn’t saying and he was obviously prepared to face hanging or the electric chair before he would tell anyone the reason he felt that Dexter Bell deserved to die.
Act II was a look in the rear view mirror, the jaw-dropping and horrifying story of Banning’s capture by the Japanese in the Philippines and his amazing survival of the Bataan Death March. If other readers are like me, they will come to the close of this section of the novel a little mystified at having received no further clue as to what Banning's motive might be for the murder that we know will happen when he returns home after his service in the war.
THE RECKONING was written by John Grisham so it should come as no surprise to hear that Act III was Pete Banning’s trial for capital murder. What did, however, come as a bit of a shock to me was the fact that the trial itself and the final revelation as to Banning’s motive was plausible but melodramatic – an anticlimactic, venal, and simple unadorned illustration of the nasty, ugly power of small minded and all too human traits such as xenophobia, jealousy, and racism.
THE RECKONING was a readable novel but its interest was primarily in the historical reality of the story, particularly the details of the Pacific war against the Japanese. It was definitely not gripping in the sense one normally applies the word to suspense thrillers or legal thrillers such as Grisham has written in the past. I’m afraid I can recommend it only to those anal readers who like to say that they’ve read everything a particular author has written.
“Brilliantly tense … A nightmare scenario evolves into an engrossing human drama” … NOT!
When an emergency at his office makes it difficult to drop hi“Brilliantly tense … A nightmare scenario evolves into an engrossing human drama” … NOT!
When an emergency at his office makes it difficult to drop his son Max off at the nursery, Andrew Hansson asks his sister-in-law Leila Syed, a partner of a successful local architectural firm, if she would mind helping out by taking Max because the center was located so close to her office. But when a second emergency concerning a critical presentation that she and her partner were going to make that morning to a potential rainmaker breakthrough client arises, Leila simply forgets that Max is in the car. Several hours later, her panicked brother-in-law calls her to let her know that the day care center has just phoned him to inquire as to Max’s whereabouts. A wave of horrified terror washes over Leila as she realizes what she has done. She dashes to the parking lot to pull Max from the searing heat of the parked car but it’s too late. The three year old youngster is dead. A post mortem attributes the cost to vehicular hyperthermia and Leila finds herself charged with negligent manslaughter.
It’s an interesting and provocative scenario that the back cover marketing blurb characterizes as “a gripping, brave and tense courtroom drama” that will “keep you on the edge of your seat until the final, heart-stopping page.” Unfortunately, it isn’t and it doesn’t. In fact, it’s a poorly written trial that would never have happened in a real-life setting. The prosecuting attorney, for example, conducts himself in a flagrantly badgering manner that wouldn’t have been tolerated without objection by the greenest of rookie defense attorneys but it was simply allowed to pass without a whisper from either attorney or judge. The characters are poorly created, not particularly credible, and uninteresting to the extent that the reader will fail to feel any sympathy for the parents of the deceased child. In fact, the only character in the novel’s line-up who may whip up some emotion in a reader is Leila, the alleged cold-hearted and self-serving ice queen charged with making a specific choice to leave an untended child in a hot car for a unspecified period of time while she dealt with her business emergency.
It is only after a distinctly non-gripping and non-tense courtroom trial winds its tortuous way to a close that some interesting ethical issues create a clever twist in the closing chapters. But, frankly, I found myself wishing that the ideas, the trial, and the legal, medical, and ethical treatment of these rather touchy questions raised in the final handful of chapters had been the creation of the likes of Jodi Picoult. Now there’s an author who knows her way around courtrooms, ethical dilemmas, credible, exciting, emotionally charged characters and issue-driven thrillers.
To summarize? NEXT OF KIN was an interesting read but I’m hardly blown away with the enthusiasm to recommend it to other readers.
“His nightmares were awful – nightly occurrences causing him to wake up screaming in terror.”
I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that it was an ove“His nightmares were awful – nightly occurrences causing him to wake up screaming in terror.”
I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that it was an overworked trope or a drum beaten too long or too loudly, but most readers would agree that pedophilia, and child abuse, rape, and sexual assault are themes that make plenty of appearances in thrillers, police procedurals and courtroom dramas. So I’ll admit that I was taken somewhat aback and definitely intrigued when debut Canadian author Stephen Roth opened his novel by jumping directly into the criminal trial of a public school teacher for child sexual assault rather than saving those proceedings for a climax and dénouement.
The demolition of 10 year old Tommy Henderson’s testimony by a wily defense attorney coupled with some rookie mistakes by a young inexperienced prosecutor resulted in the acquittal of the defendant. In the aftermath of that devastating courtroom drubbing, INNOCENCE ON TRIAL assumes the character of a more general family drama that follows Henderson through a coming of age, that sees his graduation as a criminal trial lawyer himself, and that finally addresses the question of how far he would be willing to go to save his own son’s life. Roth brings the reader full circle by returning the plot to the suspense thriller and legal drama that is effectively promised by the title and the cover art.
Stephen Roth clearly has an imagination and story-telling skills more than up to the task of writing a compelling novel. His theoretical description of reasonable versus unreasonable doubt in the context of the Canadian legal system is brilliant, informative, compelling and happens without even a second’s interruption to the flow of the story. The same could be said of his description of the technicalities of a jury selection. As to the setting of his narrative in a time and place, Roth’s description of Stratford was outstanding and accurate to a fault. But I have to reserve special over-the-top praise for his personification of the demons of alcoholism and its characterization as a false friend who keeps you company on demand, who talks with you and makes you laugh, who praises your strengths and overlooks your weaknesses and who takes you to a warm place of oblivion where you can forget about your difficulties. Absolutely brilliant, Mr Roth.
BUT (and there IS a “but”), I found the plot simply too busy. Put another way, there was just too much going on by the end of the story for a reader to keep a firm hold on all of the details and the twists and turns (shocking twists and turns, if the truth be told). My guess is that Roth’s mind was loaded with ideas for stories and he simply couldn’t resist the urge to use all of the ideas at once. I’m no author but it’s my opinion that this was probably a simple rookie mistake and we’ll see an even better story with Roth’s next novel. And lest this sound overly harsh, bear in mind that this sole criticism reduced my opinion from a 5-star rating to an unhesitating 4-stars. Not bad for a first outing!
“Ray was struck by lightning, Quentin was killed by a shovel, Ruben killed himself, and Anna was hit by a car!”
Try “But they all died different ways!”
“Ray was struck by lightning, Quentin was killed by a shovel, Ruben killed himself, and Anna was hit by a car!”
Try to imagine what might happen if a perverted topologist managed to conjoin two Möbius strips made of blank paper, twisted them up and tied them into an intractable Gordian knot, then asked an author to prepare several stories on what, at first blush, appeared to be different pieces of paper. A district attorney’s wife is killed by a hit-and-run driver; a family watches in shocked horror as their domestic abuser is blasted off a mountain by an errant lightning strike during a storm; and, an overbearing, grieving father, is killed with the shovel used to exhume his son’s barely cold body. Of course, the author will soon discover that the paper has but one side and she is forced into joining the plots into a single story in which the characters constantly seem to be bumping up against one another by virtue of the twists and turns in a most complex knot.
Then there are the romantic entanglements. One of the participants, to be sure, is a thoroughgoing bitch but at least it can be said that she’s consistent and predictable. The rest might be described as confused, sophomoric, juvenile and, at times, downright, self-entitled and narcissistic. Nobody seems to be able to even define what it is they expect or want in a relationship let alone getting as far as deciding that romance and love also involve giving and sacrificing.
All of that said, while the story strays well beyond the bounds of credibility, somehow OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE manages to hold itself together and become a readable and enjoyable legal and police procedural drama, if not a gripping or compulsive thriller. And, truth be told, I’d be interested in following the series to see how Perri O’Shaughnessy resolves the loose ends of the erstwhile on-again, off-again relationship between Nina Reilly and her investigator, Paul van Wagoner.
“People are calling you an apostate. Do you know what happens to apostates in Islam?”
As if being a professional woman in the world of law and coun“People are calling you an apostate. Do you know what happens to apostates in Islam?”
As if being a professional woman in the world of law and counseling of victims of sexual assault isn’t enough. Zara Kaleel is also a Muslim woman who refused to accept the demands of her family and walked away from an arranged marriage. The poor woman takes a daily shower in a veritable downpouring of professional, cultural and religious misogyny. And bad becomes worse when she assists a badly deformed and perennially bullied sixteen year-old girl in the filing of rape charges against four young Muslim men from hard-working immigrant families. TAKE IT BACK is a story-telling master class, a brilliant legal thriller with plenty of twists and turns and courtroom drama that takes a page from Jodi Picoult’s style of asking a myriad of ethical questions and leaves the door open for the reader to struggle with their own personal debates and answer the question for themselves. Aside from the issues related to the pursuit of defendants that Muslims are determined to present as racially and religiously motivated, TAKE IT BACK also clearly illustrates the pragmatic and legal difficulties related to the presentation and prosecution of sexual assault and rape charges.
TAKE IT BACK is fiction to be sure but it’s the kind of evocative fiction that will push hard on thinking readers’ buttons and leave them puzzling over the issues for many a day after the final page is turned. Definitely recommended.
The first book is a reasonable quality, interesting and workmanlike legal procedural covering the ins Two for the price of one, and expensive at that!
The first book is a reasonable quality, interesting and workmanlike legal procedural covering the ins and outs of asset division on the ending of a relationship in which the multi-millionaire partners were not married. As you might imagine, the issue is money and the legal hassles are hot, heavy, tangled and lustily disputed. Although there isn’t any thrills or chills, guts, gore, sex, or violence, the courtroom drama is well executed and the characters well portrayed. Then comes the “but” …
… there’s that issue of a different second book! When the jury leaves the court to deliberate on their verdict, it’s like the author left the room with them and somebody else stepped in to finish who had no idea what they were doing. The dialogue became stilted, the characters became wooden and cartoonish, and the plot (along with the requisite thriller murder) became predictable. It was like there was a high-powered spotlight shining on the murderer – it was THAT easy to figure out! The action parts of the finale read like the screenplay of a low budget B-flick! In fact, what was clearly supposed to be the thriller part of the thriller was downright boring and soporific.
BREACH OF PROMISE was a disappointment. That's all. If that change of tone and mood had occurred any earlier in the novel, there’s a distinct possibility I would have set the entire novel aside as a DNF. I thoroughly enjoyed INVASION OF PRIVACY, the only other entry in the Nina Reilly series that I’ve read, so I’m now batting .500. I’ll give another one a try and use it as the coin toss to decide if I’ll pursue the series any further.
THE BIG LIE is a hard-core legal thriller in a political ambience – the great left wing-right wing divide“Why would Florida be anything but strange?”
THE BIG LIE is a hard-core legal thriller in a political ambience – the great left wing-right wing divide; American culture; the antiquated and totally misguided implications of the Electoral College rules versus the popular vote; and dirty tricks and dirty politics up the wazoo. The premise of the tale is current, important and eminently plausible. For the sixth time in America’s checkered history, the presidential popular vote LOSER comes out on top when the Electoral College votes are counted on the night of the election. But, leading up to the actual meeting of the college, the likelihood of faithless electors in numbers sufficient to swing the election back to the winner of the popular vote has enraged the Republican President-Elect and current incumbent Malcolm MacLeod. It is clear that he will do anything – whatever it takes – to ensure that does not happen.
At the end of the novel, I walked away with the impression that the thriller was well-written, something beyond pedestrian and merely workmanlike but nowhere near the kind of story that I would award with a characterization of “gripping page-turner”. On the other hand, Grippando’s portrayal of the ugly, nasty, and utterly dysfunctional American political scene was at once brilliant, horrifying, frightening and devastatingly accurate while still managing to be laugh-out-loud, hilarious parody. No reader of either political party will fail to understand that, in THE BIG LIE, MacLeod is spelled “T-R-U-M-P”. And the satire is absolutely delicious. For example, when MacLeod attempts to pillory the Democrat candidate with an accusation that he betrayed his wife with a GAY affair (Gasp! Oh, horrors!), the Democrat response is a brilliant political marketing effort distributing millions of lavender baseball caps sporting the embroidered logo, “Make America Fabulous Again”. I mean, really, how rich is that?
A brilliant political statement that is well worth the read. And a strong ending leaves America’s future wide open to the questions of reality.
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