Outrageous October-Barbara Levenson

Outrageous October
Barbara Levenson
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Feb 11 2013, $11.99
http://www.createspace.com
ISBN: 9781480093669

Residents of High Pines, Vermont are shocked with the news that local socialite widow Carolyn Broussard was found dead in her home. The police are investigating the death as there are some anomalies with the victim’s son Tom as the prime suspect.

One year later, Mary Katz is a criminal defense attorney after being fired by her fiancé Franklin Fieldstone when he caught her and developer Carlos having sex in the office. After successfully handling a case involving her lover’s cousin, Mary and her BFF Lucy go out to eat only to find Carlos dining with his ex-wife Margarita. After Mary ends her engagement to Carlos, Lucy insists she get away; she suggests the lawyer and Sam her dog use her summer home in High Pines. In Vermont, Mary realizes she entered the wrong home when she sees a ton of mail addressed to Brousseau. She investigates the unsolved murder of Carolyn, which leads Mary meeting village attorney Dash Mellman, who persuades her to help his client in a tree dispute that turns deadly. At the same time Mary finds out that Dartmouth student Sherry, the daughter of Florida client Lillian Yarmouth, has been kidnapped and held for ransom.

The latest Mary Magruder Katz legal thriller (see Fatal February and Justice In June) is an engaging tale as the protagonist proves that The Green Mountain State is as crazy as the Sunshine State. Filled with action, fans will enjoy Mary’s New England adventure as a cold case murder, a warm case homicide and a potential killing case converge on the lawyer who can’t get away from her criminal defense attorney vocation or for that matter romance.

Harriet Klausner

The Guilty One-Lisa Ballantyne

The Guilty One
Lisa Ballantyne
Morrow, Mar 19 2013, $14.99
ISBN: 9780062195517

In London, the Islington Police arrests eleven year old Sebastian Croll for the beating death of his neighbor eight year old Ben Stokes in Barnard Park. Juvenile law solicitor Daniel Hunter defends the accused youth.

To mount a reasonable defense, Daniel investigates Sebastian’s life, which increasingly reminds the lawyer of his own troubled past as the child of a drug addicted single mom, which led to foster care until Minnie Flynn took him. Sebastian loves and hates Minnie Flynn who saved his life but also he believes destroyed his soul.

This is an exciting psychological legal procedural as readers wonder whether Daniel’s childhood prevents him from truly seeing Sebastian the violent monster or enables him to see Sebastian the hurting tweener. Though the numerous support cast can be overwhelming and the trial climax interrupted by the past, rotating between the solicitor’s salad days with Minnie and the present day trial. Fans will appreciate the blending of a psychological thriller with a British legal procedural. Daniel, Minnie and Sebastian put a face on government austerity lock them up and throw away the key mentality.

Harriet Klausner

The Lawyer’s Lawyer-James Sheehan

The Lawyer’s Lawyer

James Sheehan

Center Street, Jan 8 2013, $22.99

ISBN: 9781455508662

 

In 1993, University of North Central Florida at Oakville student Stacey Kincaid claims a man tried to kill her.  She works with local and county detectives especially Danni Jansen of OPD and the FBI to draw a sketch of her attacker.  Soon afterward the police arrest Thomas Felton.  Not long after that Felton is convicted as a serial killer who eight years later sits on death row awaiting execution once his appeals end for murders he swears he did not commit. 

 

To defend him, Felton supporters turn to retired Miami trial attorney Jack Tobin because the latter is considered the “lawyer’s lawyer” by the best of the profession when they need legal representation.  He looks into the case and finds odd anomalies that make him wonder if Felton is a fall guy.  Tobin decides to leave Bass Creek to represent Felton in court.  However, Robin is unprepared for the brouhaha of rage against him by the jurisprudence system as if justice is an inconvenience.  The citizens of Oakville threaten him and even his soul mate condemns him though she has a personal interest in this case; while the lawyer’s lawyer soon finds he needs a lawyer.

 

The latest Jack Tobin legal thriller (see The Mayor of Lexington Avenue and The Law of Second Chances) is a great tale filled with stunning twists in and out of courtroom.  The storyline is fast-paced from start to finish, but it is the cast who make this a winner as many of those in law enforcement and the legal system are angered with Tobin for mounting a competent defense when almost all of them prefer the State execute Felton.

 

Harriet Klausner

The K Street Affair-Mari Passananti

The K Street Affair

Mari Passananti

Rutland Square Press, Jan 8 2013, $15.99

58 West Rutland Square; Boston, Massachusetts 02118

ISBN: 9780985894603

 

Terrorists simultaneously attack several Washington, D. C. Metro stations in the worst assault on American soil since 9/11.  While her husband cannot get home, FBI Agents Henry Redwell and Maxwell Van Buren visit Rutledge & Smerth junior associate lawyer Lena Mancuso at her house.  The Feds demand Lena assist them prove their case against disgraced lobbyist William Acheson and her employer Q. Randolph Smerth who leads a team she is on defending the former in court.  The agents insist the pair knew the terrorist attack was coming and want her to be their informant proving bribery and money laundering involving Smerth and his Clearwater clients Acheson, Russian oil baron Korov and future Saudi ruler Prince Aziz.

 

Though she insists Smerth is no terrorist abettor, she reluctantly agrees to help the Feds.  However, Lena soon realizes the FBI is clueless as to how dangerous and humongous the international octopi of Lotus a “blocker company on steroids” truly are when it comes to profiting from tax free war. 

 

The K Street Affair is a superb financial legal thriller starring a woman whose life is devastated when the Feds knock on her door to recruit her as an undercover operative.  Lacking ambition as partnership is not a goal she wants to sacrifice her life for, Lena seems like a poor Hail Mary choice to save the country (and other nations) from a deadly global corporacy.  Fans will enjoy this taut tale wondering whether this apparently average person has the guts to risk her life and those of her loved ones to prevent an insider takeover of the country when the impact on her would be insignificant at best.

 

Harriet Klausner

No Regrets, No Remorse:-R.F. Sharp

No Regrets, No Remorse:

R.F. Sharp

Poisoned Pen, Nov 6 2012, $24.95

ISBN 9781464200434

 

Palm Beach, Florida sleazy attorney “Big Jack” Burdine dies in a boat explosion; a passerby also perished in the incident.  The police arrest lawyer Roy Flagler, who allegedly was having an affair with the victim’s wife Lucy.  Roy calls his ex-law partner Oscar Leopold to defend him.  At the jail, Roy explains that Jack’s fuel line was cut and the cops claim he has means, motive and opportunity especially after a public fight between them.  Finally he says he and Lucy have been seeing each other on a personal basis as well as on a wrongful death suit.

 

Oscar asks his former lover (and roommate), Sydney Simone to help him with the defense.  Sydney hides from Oscar that she runs Human Pest Control, which lives up it its name as an exterminator of two legged rodents.  In fact she just completed a job in Michigan.  The case turns convoluted when Roy is implicated in a vast insurance scam that has Oscar under investigation too.

 

This is a fast-paced thriller with legal and kick butt action.  With her different morality (sort of mindful of Beth Riesgraf’s Parker in Leverage) Sydney steals the show as she takes no prisoners in her secret endeavor and in protecting Oscar the wuss.  Though none of the cast is likable, fans will enjoy No Regrets, No Remorse due to the anti-heroine whose attitude brings freshness to the genre.

 

Harriet Klausner

Dead Peasants-Larry D. Thompson

Dead Peasants

Larry D. Thompson

Dunne, Oct 2 2012, $25.99

ISBN 9781250009494

 

In Beaumont, Texas, after winning an enormous wrongful death civil suit for three families of dead refinery workers, attorney Jack Bryant retires.  He plans to spend time with his son J.D. an ex-marine who is a walk-on trying to make the nationally ranked TCU football team, and to do pro bona legal services for the poor in Fort Worth.

 

The “Boss” hires a hit man to kill several former employees, but make it look like accidents.  Meanwhile Widow June Davis shows Jack an exorbitant insurance check made out to her late husband’s employer.  She explains that the payoff is exponentially greater than what her spouse could have made at the auto dealership in a booming economy.  Jack accepts June as a client as he files in civil court for her to collect the life insurance money.

 

The murder for insurance money of “Dead Peasant” is an engaging legal thriller with a powerful underlying concept.  The fast-paced storyline is at its best when the focuses are on insurance practices or in the courtroom.  However, Jack spends too much time as a detective, which detracts from an otherwise intriguing tale.

 

Harriet Klausner

Ground Truth-Rob Sangster

Ground Truth

Rob Sangster

ImaJinn, Sep 1 2012, $16.00

http://www.imajinnbooks.com

ISBN: 9781610260961

 

Panicked Anita Hudson calls Stanford University Professor Jack Strider insisting his widowed father H. Peckford Strider was acting weird.  Though he considers Peck to be odd, Jack visits his father who tells him the sh*t hits the fan when the news discusses the Pacific Dawn cargo ship containing six dead women.  Peck tells his lover Anita she is dead too before he commits suicide. 

 

San Francisco District Attorney Rick Calder informs Jack his father was involved with human trafficing selling young females many of whom had Aids.  Rick also says he will find the link to hang Jack.  The media storm ends Jack’s academic career and his fast track to the Supreme Court.  His mentor Sam Butler gets him a job working for former Secretary of State Justin Sinclair.  Jack’s first assignment involves a corporation working toxic waste removal in Juarez, Mexico.  He soon learns to trust no one except his legal firm’s Debra Vanderberg as he finds out the Ground Truth means millions of Mexicans will soon die.

 

This is an exciting legal thriller that grips the reader from the moment Peck puts the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger, and never slows down as Jack changes his priorities.  Though the villains seem more like caricatures of angry avaricious  people, fans will enjoy this entertaining international law thriller as nothing is going to break the hero’s ethical stride.

 

Harriet Klausner

 

Last Lawyer Standing-Douglas Corleone

Last Lawyer Standing

Douglas Corleone

Minotaur, Aug 21 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312552282

 

In Honolulu, Assistant U.S. Attorneys William F. Boyd and Audra Levy offer criminal Turi Ahina a deal if he wants to avoid a long sentence for his meth lab.  They expect Turi to go undercover inside the gang led by drug lord Orlando Masonet whom no one seems to have met.  However, the cops arrest Turi for shooting Police Detective Kanoa Bristol.  For the zillionth time, criminal defense attorney Kevin Corvelli defends Turi using the cop is corrupt as their arrack.

 

Running for reelection, Hawaii Governor Wade Omphrey, though not charged as he has an alibi, retains Corvelli when his mistress Oksana Sutin is found dead due to strychnine poisoning.  The case remains unsolved but the damage to the Governor’s bid for a second term seems insurmountable while Corvelli assignment is persuading the cops his client did not hire hit man Lok Sun or any other pro.

 

The lasts Corvelli legal thriller (see Night on Fire and One Man’s Paradise) is an exciting though by the book Hawaiian tale in which the protagonist paints the cops on the take while convincing the same cops whose reputation he nukes that his other client is clean.  Fast-paced and filled with twists though some seem obvious; fans will enjoy this entertaining complicated mystery as cynical Corvelli works his two cases in his wisenheimer manner.

 

Harriet Klausner

Suzy’s Case-Andy Siegel

Suzy’s Case

Andy Siegel

Scribner, Jul 10 2012, $26.00

ISBN: 9781451658781

 

In New York City criminal lawyer Henry Benson has given work to personal injury and medical malpractice attorney Tug Wyler that four times has led to the latter being called before the Disciplinary Committee.  Once again he is slapped with an ethics violation and a fine of $25.00 as Judge Howell knows Wyler was right.  Observer Judge Piccone warns Tug he will throw the book at him if he oversees a lack of zealousness defending a client regardless of cause.

 

Benson asks Wyler to handle the Suzy Williams tragedy.  In a Brooklyn hospital, six years old Suzy went into cardiac arrest; a seizure left her “a spastic quadriplegic with severe brain damage.”  When Benson’s medical expert claims the child’s sickle cell anemia caused the seizure rather than staff negligence, Tug knows there is no complaint.  However, Suzy’s single mom June persuades him to represent her daughter in their multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

 

Wyler will remind legal thriller fans of Joseph Teller’s Jaywalker (see The Tenth Case), as he thrives to do the right thing regardless of personal costs.  The engaging storyline is fast-paced though there are too many happenchance incidents.  However the cast is top rate starting with the wisecracking Wyler who enjoys busting the chops of righteous shitheads in power, the caring mom and especially Suzy.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Conviction-Robert Dugoni

The Conviction

Robert Dugoni

Touchstone, Jun 12 2012, $25.00

ISBN: 9781451606720

 

In Seattle, attorney David Sloane’s sixteen year old “son” Jake Carter continues to get in trouble as he has since he witnessed the murder of his mom who was Sloane’s wife.  Sloane has struggled with her death too, but has begun to move on.  When Jake is arrested for the second time, Sloane and the lad’s father Frank persuade the court not to incarcerate him.  His friend police detective Tom Molia invites Sloane and Jake to join him and his son TJ on a camping trip in Truluck, California.

 

However, the teens are caught breaking into a store trying to retrieve Jake’s driver’s license taken earlier by the proprietor.  Winchester County Judge Boykin coaxes guilty pleas without council from the two defendants.  They are sentenced to six months at six months Fresh Start, the Winchester County-owned wilderness boot camp where teens enter but never leave alive.

 

The latest Sloane legal thriller is an exciting “frontier justice” tale (see Wrongful Death and Murder One) as the legal efforts to free the teens fail.  The storyline is filled with action though the actions of the cop and the attorney are at best unlikely while what they failed to do even more improbable.  Still fans who ignore their plausibility meter will enjoy this entertaining story.

 

Harriet Klausner