MostlyFiction Book Reviews » Courtroom Drama We Love to Read! Wed, 14 May 2014 13:06:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3 APPLE TREE YARD by Louise Doughty /2014/apple-tree-yard-by-louise-doughty/ /2014/apple-tree-yard-by-louise-doughty/#comments Tue, 14 Jan 2014 12:45:13 +0000 /?p=25119 Book Quote:

“I can scarcely believe we had sex in the Houses of Parliament. I can scarcely believe that we ever had sex at all. That acute feeling, the giddiness of it, as if I had plunged my face into a bouquet of lilies, their scent so blissful it would make me feel faint – that was what it was like. Was it happiness? Was that all it was? Or was it a kind of addiction, to the story, to the drama of what we were doing? If it was a film, we were the stars.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody  (JAN 14, 2014)

Yvonne Carmichael, 52 years old, is a respected geneticist, married for many years with two grown children. She works for an esteemed institute called The Beaufort and is also an external examiner for graduate students. Her life is rich in many ways. Thus, it comes as a surprise to her that when she is scheduled to give a report at the House of Parliaments she notices a man who is giving her a come hither look and she begins to follow him. This begins an extraordinary affair. She doesn’t even know his name or what he does, though after some time she surmises that he is a spy of some type. This first time they have sex, he leads her to the Crypt Chapel on the House of Parliaments grounds and in the rank basement they make love. Yvonne thinks “From my empirical knowledge of you I know one thing and one thing only. Sex with you is like being eaten by a wolf.”

The affair begins suddenly and is all-consuming for Yvonne. Her lover gives her a pre-pay phone with his number programmed in and she is to call him only on that. She fantasizes about him continually and her life is one long effort to be with him in every free moment.

“It is worrying me, how easy you found it to have sex with me. I could have said, how easy you found it to seduce me…but seduction suggests a process of persuasion over the passage of time. You just went right ahead and I went right along with it – there wasn’t any persuading necessary. I need you to know this was not normal for me.”

Yvonne is caught up in the high of her sexual power, her ability to court a man who desires her so fully. The mystery of the affair is also a pull for her. It is so different from her daily life. “I am fifty-two. I have status and gravitas – when I don’t have my tights around my ankles in a secluded chapel beneath the Houses of Parliament, that is.”

We learn in the prologue that there is a court case, that something is happening to the two of them that is very serious and earth-shattering. Yvonne realizes in court as the novel opens, “That is the moment when it all comes crashing down . . . We both know we are about to lose everything – our marriages are over our careers are finished, I have lost my son’s and daughter’s good regard, and more than that, our freedom is at stake. Everything we have tried to protect – it is all about to tumble.” Their affair leads them to an act that finds them in court, fighting for their freedom with every ounce of their strength.

This is a bountiful novel, filled to the brim with wonderful writing, psychological suspense, an erotically charged relationship and a harrowing courtroom battle. Told from the first person, with Yvonne as the narrator, we travel with her from her first glance at her lover to the denouement which is riveting. Louise Doughty has written a truly compelling novel, one that has me wanting to read her other works, and soon.

AMAZON READER RATING: from 7 readers
PUBLISHER: Sarah Crichton Books (January 14, 2014)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Louise Doughty
EXTRAS:
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Nonfiction:

]]> /2014/apple-tree-yard-by-louise-doughty/feed/ 0 THE FIFTH WITNESS by Michael Connelly /2011/the-fifth-witness-by-michael-connelly/ /2011/the-fifth-witness-by-michael-connelly/#comments Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:53:20 +0000 /?p=17293 Book Quote:

“There is a big picture to this case and the defense is going to show it to you.  The prosecution would like you to believe that this is a simple case of vengeance.  But murder is never simple and if you look for shortcuts in an investigation or a prosecution then you are going to miss things.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowksy  (APR 10, 2011)

Michael (Mickey) Haller is still working out of the back seat of his armor-plated Lincoln Town Car, but he now specializes in helping people prevent or delay foreclosure on their homes. In the shattered economy and with housing prices in freefall, business has been brisk. Although criminal defense is his first love, Mickey has changed course, knowing that “the only growth industry in the law business was foreclosure defense.”

It may not be exciting, but it pays the bills. In fact, Mickey has hired an associate, Jennifer Aronson who, along with his driver, Rojas, office manager (and ex-wife), Lorna, and investigator, Cisco, comprise his entire staff.  Mickey does an about-face when one of his clients, Lisa Trammel, is arrested for the murder of Mitchell Bondurant, head of Westland National Bank’s mortgage loan division. Lisa, who had previously hired Mickey to help her stay in her home, is charged with waiting for Bondurant in a parking garage, and attacking him in a fit of rage. Mickey throws himself into Trammel’s case with determination, creativity, and vigor. Opposing counsel is Andrea Freeman, a savvy and ambitious prosecutor who knows all of Mickey’s tricks and has quite a few of her own.   Haller tries to draw attention away from his client, and points out that there are others who had reason to want Bondurant dead.  Freeman sticks to the nitty-gritty—eyewitness, blood, and DNA evidence that point to Trammel as the perpetrator.

The Fifth Witness, by Michael Connelly, is a fast-paced, darkly humorous, and absorbing legal thriller in which everything gels: the lively and memorable cast, the beautifully constructed plot, and the entertaining byplay between the judge and the two opposing attorneys. Haller and Freeman are smart enough to use each piece of evidence, no matter how peripheral or circumstantial, to full advantage. On the personal front, Mickey spends some quality time with his fourteen-year-old daughter, Hayley, and his other ex-wife, Maggie, whom he still adores and hopes to win back.

Mickey, with the help of his able team, uses every device he can think of to get his client off; however, in the back of his mind, he is uncomfortable. Although everyone is entitled to a vigorous defense, how far should Mickey go to sway the jury? In this timely book, Connelly addresses the housing mess that still affects many beleaguered Americans, presents us with an electrifying trial, and proves once again that he is still at the top of his game.

AMAZON READER RATING: from 468 readers
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (April 5, 2011)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Michael Connelly
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Harry Bosch reviews:

Michael Haller:

Stand-alone mysteries:

Bibliography:

LAPD Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch Series

Mickey Haller:

Other:

* Terry McCaleb is in these novels
** Harry Bosch is in these novels
*** The Poet is in these novels.
****Mickey Haller is in this novel

Nonfiction:

Movies from Books:

]]> /2011/the-fifth-witness-by-michael-connelly/feed/ 0 THE CONFESSION by John Grisham /2011/the-confession-by-john-grisham/ /2011/the-confession-by-john-grisham/#comments Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:51:35 +0000 /?p=15259 Book Quote:

“Could it be a dream, a nightmare? Was she really there, awake in the darkness contemplating her son’s final hours? Of course she was. She had lived the nightmare for nine years now, ever since the day she’d been told that Donté had not only been arrested but also confessed. The nightmare was a book as thick as her Bible, every chapter another tragedy, every page filled with sorrow and disbelief.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (JAN 09, 2011)

Keith Schroeder is a thirty-five year old Lutheran minister in Topeka, Kansas. One day, Dana, Keith’s wife, greets a stranger who walks into the church. The man identifies himself as Travis Boyette, age forty-four, a former prison inmate who is currently in a halfway house and is about to be released. Keith agrees to speak to Travis; the meeting will change their lives.

Meanwhile, in East Texas, a twenty-seven year old black man, Donté Drumm, is awaiting execution for a murder that he allegedly committed in 1999. Under duress, Donté confessed to killing seventeen-year-old Nicole Yarber and dumping her body into the Red River. The body was never found. Although he later recanted, Drumm was convicted of abduction, rape, and murder. He has steadfastly maintained his innocence for the past nine years. Donté’s lawyer, the zealous Robbie Flak, has done everything in his power to get his client’s conviction overturned, but time and appeals are running out. Drumm’s execution is scheduled to take place in a few days.

John Grisham’s The Confession is a mesmerizing story about the ways in which justice is meted out in places where the color of one’s skin and the desire of politicians to be reelected may carry more weight than the facts of a case. Grisham keeps the narrative moving briskly by moving back and forth between Keith and Travis (who become allies of sorts) and Donté, his family, and their defense team. The suspense stems from the relentlessly ticking clock.

Grisham is a savvy writer who knows how to spin an involving tale. His brisk dialogue, sardonic humor, and lively characters effortlessly hold our attention. Unfortunately, the book is a bit too long and, in addition, the author is heavy-handed in his depiction of certain cops, prosecutors, and judges as arrogant, corrupt, and self-serving, while Robbie and his colleagues are unfailingly altruistic and conscientious. The good vs. evil theme is a bit too pat. To his credit, however, Grisham effectively demonstrates that anyone may resort to violence under certain circumstances; that even “good citizens” can be misguided in their thinking; that criminals are often products of their severely dysfunctional families; that irresponsible reporters will stoop extremely low to garner headlines; and that our system of doling out punishment is far from perfect. The Confession will undoubtedly generate heated debate about the merits of the death penalty.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 1,203 readers
PUBLISHER: Doubleday; 1St Edition edition (October 26, 2010)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: John Grisham
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:

 

Bibliography:

Theodore Boone series:

Nonfiction:

Movies from Books:

and an original screenplay:

]]> /2011/the-confession-by-john-grisham/feed/ 0 DAMAGE by John Lescroart /2011/damage-by-john-lescroart/ /2011/damage-by-john-lescroart/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:05:16 +0000 /?p=14918 Book Quote:

“He’s been through difficult times before in his trials, his failed marriage, with his children, in his life, but never before had he completely abandoned his essential view of himself as a good man, an honest man, a man of good character.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (JAN 04, 2011)

The arch villain in John Lescroart’s Damage is Roland Curtlee, the pampered son of Cliff and Theresa Curtlee. The Curtlees are a wealthy and politically connected couple who own San Francisco’s number two newspaper, the Courier. Ro has been released from prison after serving nine years, well shy of his original sentence–twenty-five years to life. Although Ro was found guilty of raping and murdering his family’s housekeeper, Dolores Sandoval, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. This leaves the new San Francisco District Attorney, Wes Farrell, in an awkward position. The Curtlees supported Wes’s candidacy and provided him with favorable press coverage. Now they expect payback. They want Ro to be freed on bail and furthermore, they do not want him to be retried.

Damage is a searing indictment of a criminal justice system that is riddled with flaws. The District Attorney is an elected official who is answerable to the public, and he is subject to the same pressures as any other politician. He needs money and influence to win, which robs him of the independence that a DA should have in order to make sound decisions. Long story short, a loathsome and sadistic sociopath goes free on bail, and then the bodies start to pile up. Fifty-seven year old Abe Glitsky, a long-standing Lescroart character, is head of San Francisco’s homicide department, and he is no shrinking violet. He has “a flat, deathless, and menacing stare,” which he uses to good effect. Amanda Jenkins is an ambitious prosecutor who helped put Ro away and now works under Will in the DA’s office. Glitsky, Amanda, and others will knock themselves out trying to find a way to keep Ro from causing further mayhem.

This is one of John Lescroart’s most compelling legal and psychological thrillers in years. Damage has sardonic humor, strong dialogue, lively characters, and a complex but well constructed plot. An exception is a twist that the author throws in at the end. Most alert readers will see it coming. In addition, defense attorney Dismas Hardy, who has been the protagonist of many of Lescroart’s previous novels, makes a few superfluous cameo appearances. It is more than enough to observe the determined Glitsky wrestling with Wes, the mayor, and the chief of police; Farrell vacillating between doing what is right and what is expedient; and Ro and his family using their money and power to manipulate public opinion.

To Lescroart’s credit, he does not provide us with a “feel-good” story. On the contrary, he clearly demonstrates that sometimes, judges, detectives, and prosecutors—as much as they might want to do the right thing—fail in their mission to keep criminals behind bars. Damage is a hard-hitting look at what can happen when immoral individuals do battle with those sworn to uphold the law.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 76 readers
PUBLISHER: Dutton Adult (January 4, 2011)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: John Lescroart
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Our review of previous books in the series:

And a review of his stand-alone thriller:

Bibliography:

Auguste Lupa Series:

Dismas Hardy / Lt. Abe Glitskey Series:

Wyatt Hunt / Insp. Devin Juhle:

Gina Roarke / Insp. Devin Juhle:

Music by the author:

]]> /2011/damage-by-john-lescroart/feed/ 0 THE LEAVENWORTH CASE by Anna Katherine Green /2010/the-leavenworth-case-by-anna-katherine-green/ /2010/the-leavenworth-case-by-anna-katherine-green/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:34:00 +0000 /?p=11154 Book Quote:

“And here let me say that Mr. Gryce, the detective, was not the thin, wiry individual with a shrewd eye that seems to plunge into the core of your being and pounce at once upon its hidden secret that you are doubtless expecting to see. Mr. Gryce was a portly, comfortable personage with an eye that never pounced, that did not even rest — on you. If it rested anywhere, it was always on some insignificant object in your vicinity, some vase, inkstand, book, or button. These things he would seem to take into his confidence, make the repositories of his conclusions, but you — you might as well be the steeple on Trinity Church, for all the connection you ever appeared to have with him or his thoughts.”

Book Review:

Review by Kirstin Merrihew (AUG 6, 2010)

In 1917, the august and eccentric Sherlock Holmes was sent a letter by his American precursor detective, Ebenezer Gryce, warmly extending sympathy for a shared suffering of rheumatism, and winkingly offering hope that Conan Doyle would give to Sherlock as clever an assistant as Anna Katharine Green had to Ebenezer, casting gentle aspersions on Dr. Watson! Naturally, it was really Green who was tweaking Doyle in good fun. She and Doyle had met in Buffalo, New York in 1894 when Sherlock’s creator toured the U.S, delivering lectures. He couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see the lady who debuted her series sleuth nearly a decade before the Holmes stories began.

That first Green novel, The Leavenworth Case, was originally published in 1878 and became a bestseller in America. It even caused some political-correctness-of-the-day commotion when the gentlemen of the Pennsylvania Legislature hotly debated the whether “the story was manifestly beyond a woman’s powers.” Some of them thought the novel had actually been written by a man using a woman’s nom de plume. But these doubting gentlemen were quite wrong in their chauvinistic suspicions. Not only was Anna Katharine Green capable of writing one popular detective story, but she authored nearly forty others over a forty-five year span ending in 1923. Although she retired from writing then, she lived until age 88 — another twelve years. Unfortunately, in the decades following her death, her works gradually ceded to subsequent genre authors such as Agatha Christie, and Green (and Gryce) was nearly forgotten.

Back now to the specifics of Green’s first novel. Actually, Gryce, unlike Holmes, worked with more than one “assistant” in the course of several novels and short stories. But as Michael Sims notes in the introduction, Gryce’s “Watson” in The Leavenworth Case was a, “intelligent, passionate, and impulsive lawyer who bounds across the countryside sniffing for clues.” His name was Everett Raymond, and sly Gryce let him do much of the legwork while the older detective gathered the evidence, fit the pieces together, and unmasked the murderer. Raymond also narrated most of the tale, stepping aside briefly to allow two other key characters to tell their stories.

Raymond gets involved in the case of the murder of wealthy New York businessman Horatio Leavenworth when Leavenworth’s private secretary bursts into his law office looking for the absent senior partner who generally handles the Leavenworth legalities and blurts out the horrible news. Raymond follows the other man to the Leavenworth mansion where he meets Ebenezer Gryce already on the case. Raymond is there to see to the legal protection of Leavenworth’s two beautiful adopted daughters. But before he speaks with them, he views the murder scene and attends the coroner’s inquest which is being held in the house. Raymond becomes aware that the circumstances of the crime pretty much limit the suspects to those who were in the house the previous night. And he realizes that the two daughters — one of whom was set to inherit nearly all of her adoptive father’s estate and the other who was going to receive nearly nothing — are emerging as the strongest suspects, particularly since neither is willing to say much in the way of a defense.

After Raymond meets the two young women, he finds himself deeply attracted to one and determined to prove her innocence despite her lack of cooperation. He and Gryce form a loose investigative partnership and compare notes and theories at intervals. Raymond, along with one of Gryce’s agents — called simply “Q” — tries to find a young woman named Hannah who disappeared from the Leavenworth house sometime around the time of the murder. He also looks into Leavenworth’s background and that of a mysterious Britisher with the name of Clavering.

The plot takes quite a few sharp turns, keeping the reader guessing about actions, motives, and the final outcome. Quite a few reviewers in the past have referred to this and other Green novels as melodramatic and stilted in style. The Leavenworth Case is written with a Victorian flair for long “sermons” on rectitude and correct but snooty social behavior. But, again in Michael Sims’ words, “…if outbreaks of Victorian emotion were fatal, all of Dickens’s characters would have expired long ago.” He adds, “Now and then her storytelling is as leisurely as you would expect from a nineteenth-century novel, but mostly the story dashes at a pace that dazzled her contemporaries. She zips through many a scene like an indie film director.”

Modern novelists tend to push the envelope when it comes to recounting behavior but don’t often judge their characters per se. Green, a woman of her time was no relativist, and she believed in using literature to deliver messages about right and wrong. In an interview she gave she said, “Root out Self and you would practically eliminate crime.” She meant that selfishness was the root of all crime. The Leavenworth Case aptly illustrates that conviction. But Green wasn’t of the opinion that people couldn’t change…at least in some cases. One Leavenworth character in particular sees the path to destruction on which they are traveling and they pull off into a very different avenue. Others, however, meet sad ends or even go quite bonkers. But the formula of a detective story that deals with a finite number of suspects and is ultimately solved is here a genre forerunner, not a copycat. It also observes the “cozy” mystery format of concluding on a happy note.

It is great to see Penguin Classics release this new edition of Green’s first novel, because, despite its Victorian stilt, this really is a well plotted whodunit, and a fascinating introduction to Ebenezer Gryce, a worthy competitor for Sherlock Holmes and a character who really deserves a renaissance with mystery readers, especially here in his native America.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-5-0from 2 readers
PUBLISHER: Penguin Classics (April 27, 2010)
REVIEWER: Kirstin Merrihew
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? Not Yet
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Wikipedia page on Anna Katherine Green
EXTRAS: Project Gutenberg books — also many books available for the Kindle

Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Another classic mystery series:

The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers

Bibliography:

(Note: I pieced this together from research on the ‘net and not confident that is 100% correct.)

Ebenezer Gryce series:

Other mysteries:

Short Stories:

  • The Old Stone House and Other Stories (1891)
  • The Staircase at the Heart’s Delight (1894)
  • Midnight in Beauchamp Rose (1895)
  • The Bronze Hand (1897)
  • The Hermit of ___ Street (1898)
  • The Gray Madam (1899)
  • A Difficult Problem and Other Stories (1900)
  • The House in the Mist (1905)
  • Room Number 3 and Other Detective Stories(1919)
  • Masterpieces of Mystery (1907)
  • To the Minute, Scarlet and Black: Two Tales of ife’s Perpelexities (1916)
    • ]]>     /2010/the-leavenworth-case-by-anna-katherine-green/feed/ 0     INNOCENT by Scott Turow /2010/innocent-by-scott-turow/ /2010/innocent-by-scott-turow/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 23:50:09 +0000 /?p=9268 Book Quote:

    “I wanted what I had wanted from the time the nightmare began: the life I had before. I did not have the strength, if the truth be told, to start again. Or to see my son, a fragile creature, become the final victim of the entire tragedy.”

    Book Review:

    Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (MAY 4, 2010)

    Back in 1987, Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent created a sensation. It had all of the elements that fans of legal thrillers adore: murder, adultery, courtroom pyrotechnics, and a final twist that knocked everyone’s socks off.  In Innocent, the highly anticipated sequel, it is 2007.  Rusty Sabich is now sixty years old and has risen to become Chief Judge of the Third District Appellate Court in Kindle County. He is hoping to run for the State Supreme Court in the near future. Unfortunately, his personal life has been far less successful than his career.

    Rusty’s wife of thirty-six years is a brilliant woman, but she is afflicted with a crippling case of bipolar disorder. She is prone to uncontrollable rages and devastating depression; medication cannot completely alleviate her symptoms. Rusty and Barbara have stayed together partly to protect their sensitive only child, Nat, twenty-eight, who is about to graduate from law school. When Rusty is tempted by a beautiful thirty-four year old woman who has set her sights on him, he must decide whether he should risk everything to embark on an affair that is bound to end badly.

    Twenty-one years earlier, Tommy Molto had been a prosecutor during Sabich’s sensational trial, and the two have a history of mutual respect and antipathy. Each acknowledges the other’s courtroom skills, but neither one can forget how Rusty evaded conviction. Now Tommy, who is acting Prosecuting Attorney, tries Rusty for a new murder—that of Rusty’s wife, Barbara. Molto’s fiery deputy, Jim Brand, is fiercely loyal to his boss and something of a pit bill. He uses all of his powers of persuasion to convince Tommy that this time, they can nail Sabich and make him pay for at least one of his crimes. What follows is a clash of the titans, since Tommy is not the only powerhouse attorney eager to win this case. Rusty is fortunate to have on his side a top-notch defense lawyer, Sandy Stern who, as he did before, hopes to wield his magic wand and exonerate his high-profile client.

    Turow keeps us off balance by going back and forth in time, changing points of view, and withholding key bits of information so that he can spring a few surprises in the final chapters. Innocent is an intense story of how people nurse deep-seated resentments that fester for years and do inestimable damage; of family members who are afraid to tell one another the truth; of infidelity and betrayal; and ultimately, of love and redemption. Turow’s courtroom scenes are mesmerizing, and he makes the complex proceedings accessible and fascinating, even for those who know little about criminal procedure.

    One quibble is that Rusty’s behavior does not always ring true. He is supposedly an intelligent and self-disciplined individual who has learned something from his past misdeeds, but his actions in this novel are a bit too naïve, foolish, and self-destructive to be believed. In addition, there is a bit of contrivance in the way the author sews up the threads of his narrative so that everyone gets his or her just desserts.

    Still, Turow knows how to grab our attention and hold it, and he maintains a high level of suspense throughout this fast-paced and intricate tale. The sharply written and sometimes earthy dialogue as well as Turow’s entertaining and often dryly humorous prose keep things moving along quickly. Innocent, as its predecessor did more than two decades ago, demonstrates how difficult it is to mete out perfect justice in an imperfect world where so many people lie to themselves and others.

    AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 265 readers
    PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (May 4, 2010)
    REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
    AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
    AUTHOR WEBSITE: Scott Turow
    EXTRAS: Excerpt
    MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

    Bibliography:

    Non-fiction:

    As Editor:

    Movies from books:

    ]]>     /2010/innocent-by-scott-turow/feed/ 0     AMONG THIEVES by David Hosp /2010/among-thieves-by-david-hosp/ /2010/among-thieves-by-david-hosp/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:01:35 +0000 /?p=8027 Book Quote:

    “People have searched for these paintings for twenty years,” she said. “The police, the FBI, Interpol, private detectives, insurance detectives, art historians, treasure hunters. People have spent an enormous amount of energy trying to find these things, but no one has done it yet. There have been lots of theories about who was responsible. The most popular is that the IRA teamed up with the Boston mob to do the job, then split the take between the two groups.”

    Book Review:

    Review by Kirstin Merrihew (MAR 1, 2010)

    Among Thieves opens its prologue with a man from Ireland named Liam about to finish off “a lump of flesh curled in front of him on the cement floor.” He had tortured “the lump” for information that he had not gotten. While looking down at the man, Murphy, Liam remembered how, when he was a child in Belfast, a vengeance killing left him the only survivor in his immediate family. This grisly event had put him on his current path of mayhem and murder.

    Next, Boston attorney Scott Finn enters the Nashua Street Jail to visit Devon Malley, a guy he knew back in the day when he wasn’t such an upstanding citizen either. Devon is in the joint for what looks like a smash-and-grab at a very expensive clothing and lingerie store. But as Scott, his paralegal, Lissa Krantz, and his investigator, Tom Kozlowski, soon discover, defending Devon is no piece of cake. Not to mention this could well become a pro bono case that could end up costing much more than foregone greenbacks.

    And then there is Devon’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Sally (yes, Sally Malley) who needs somewhere to stay while her old man’s in the slammer. Scott knows from personal experience what the foster care system is like and decides to let her stay in his spare room until her father’s bail hearing. Sally, who lived her early years with her druggie mother and had had to fend off some of the men her mom brought home, locks the guest room door just in case. She also puts up the expected teenage wall, and it is up to Scott, Lissa, and Tom to get her to come out from behind it.

    Meanwhile, a team of Boston cops and an FBI agent work the case of cut-up-and-dead Murphy, a well-known member of the mob. Then they are called to another crime scene where four men have been shot to death and a fifth one’s body looks like a filleted fish. This second tortured lump is Eddie Ballick, an underworld boss, who would have preferred being a fisherman to a life of crime. Scott had gone to see Ballick about Devon the day before, hoping to get information that he might be able to trade to the prosecution on his client’s behalf about others involved in the store robbery. However, Ballick isn’t cooperative even though he and Scott knew each other way back. When Scott is asked by the police to come answer questions about Ballick’s murder, Scott stalls them. He first goes to the courthouse to try to get bail for Devon. He also tells Devon what happened to Ballick, and that totally changes Devon’s mind about wanting his freedom. He knows only too well he could be next on the vicious killer’s list.

    Devon and Liam, as told in Among Thieves, were the two men who robbed the Gardner Museum back in March 1990, getting away with artwork now estimated at over half a billion dollars. And Liam is methodically working through the men most likely to know where the paintings are stashed. However, the Boston mobster at the top of that list is out of Liam’s reach because he’s been on the run for years. That man is Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger.

    Bulger is a real person who has made appearances of sorts in various novels including Along Comes a Stranger, by Dorie McCullough Lawson. Whether he makes one in Among Thieves will remain for readers to discover. Whether he does or not, he is considered by this novel to have been one of the men behind the thefts at the Gardner Museum. As the introductory quote notes, the theory that U.S. organized crime partnered with the IRA to pull off this crime is a popular one, and Bulger headed the Boston crime world back then. Ulrich Boser’s The Gardner Heist, a 2008 examination of facts and theories about this unsolved armed robbery, mentions Bulger as a credible culprit, and the author became so engrossed in this possibility that he even traveled to Galway Bay, Ireland thinking he might track Bulger down there.

    For Scott Finn and his associates, Liam — who clearly will stop at nothing get his hands on the paintings — is the primary problem, not Bulger. After Devon spills why he got himself arrested in the first place and why he doesn’t want to leave the jail, they realize defending him could also put their lives at grave risk. Without a means to getting at Devon directly, Liam might target one of them — or target Sally. And the prospect of dying like Murphy and Ballick strikes cold fear in the hearts of all the potential victims.

    As the magnitude of their client’s criminal past dawns on them, Finn, Tom, and Lissa, in quite realistic and sometimes funny scenes, also become attached to Sally — and she, grudgingly, to them. I did too, which isn’t always the case when an author decides to make a rather unsocial teen into a major character. Anyway, by the time Sally might be sighted in Liam’s crosshairs, Hosp’s trio and readers like me actually want her to survive the novel and to perhaps turn fifteen in Scott Finn’s next adventure. Generally, these four characters are believable people for whom one gladly roots. The same can be said for the police partners, about whom Hosp provides some interesting back story.

    David Hosp’s threesome of Finn, Krantz, and Kozlowski reminds me somewhat of Michael Connelly’s best-seller fictional defense attorney, Mikey Haller, and his own squad of associates. For example, Haller’s investigator, Dennis Wojchiechowski, and his assistant, Lorna Taylor, are an item, and this parallels the relationship of Tom and Lissa. While reading Among Thieves, I thought of Connelly’s The Brass Verdict a few times. Although their plots are not that similar, both Finn and Haller have to deal with less than forthcoming or cooperative clients and must mull over some serious legal ethics issues.

    Finn and Haller also have in common that they each “star” in a book series. In Finn’s case, Dark Harbor and Innocence, have both been quite enthusiastically received by the public and critics.

    Unlike Connelly, Hosp is an attorney. Whether this primary profession gives him a leg up or he simply has a knack for writing clear legal suspense, this novel is easily followed by readers without a legal background. Once though I thought Hosp had decided he was writing for fourth graders who hadn’t learned their fractions or percentages yet: “In her fifteen years on the detective squad, she’d cleared over seventy-five percent of her cases. That meant if a case was assigned to her, three out of four times someone was convicted of the crime.” And then, two sentences later, Hosp again turned math teacher. But that’s a minor quibble.

    What really happened to the stolen Gardner art remains shrouded in mystery, but Among Thieves has done its homework regarding the facts that are available and the conjectures that have grown from those facts. The novel’s practically minute-by-minute scenario of how the heist might have gone down is entirely plausible. The trick for someone writing about this monumental, real unsolved art crime is devising a conclusion that supplies adequate resolution and yet doesn’t violate what the the real world knows to be true about the paintings. Hosp meets those requirements ingeniously. The climax of Hosp’s Among Thieves revs the drama and steps up the unpredictability.The tension mounts as Liam, Devon, Sally, our three musketeers, and the cops and feds all converge. Some of them won’t breathe much longer. All because a man who once knifed masterpieces from their frames desperately wants possession of them again.

    Bookdom’s legal thriller genre isn’t a lonely place; Hosp’s series faces stiff competition. However, it can stand up to it and shoulder out pedestal space all its own.

    Bibliography:

    Scott Finn series

    Stand-alone:

    AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 60 readers
    PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (January 11, 2010)
    REVIEWER: Kirstin Merrihew
    AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
    AUTHOR WEBSITE: David Hosp
    EXTRAS: Excerpt
    MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

    Dark Harbor

    The Betrayed

    And other Boston Mystery writers:

    Dennis Lehane

    William G. Tapply

    Richard Marinick

    John F. Dobbyn
    ]]>     /2010/among-thieves-by-david-hosp/feed/ 0     THE IMMORTALITY FACTOR by Ben Bova /2009/immortality-factor-by-ben-bova/ /2009/immortality-factor-by-ben-bova/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:38:54 +0000 /?p=6772 Book Quote:

    Does Habermeir know you’ve asked me to look into his work? I asked…I didn’t like stepping on the toes of other scientists in the Omnitech family. But I needed Johnston’s support for my own programs and to keep the support I had to keep the CEO happy. Politics. There was no way around it, you had to be good at politics to get to do the science you wanted to do.

    Still, I couldn’t help muttering, “How can you expect anything but trouble, dealing with radioactive material?”

    Johnston fixed me with a stern gaze. “There’s a lot of money to be made in cleaning up nuclear wastes. And it’s a good thing to do, Arthur. You’re always telling me we should be doing good things, aren’t you?”

    Book Review:

    Review by Ann Wilkes (Dec 29, 2009)

    The Immortality Factor was first published in 1996 as Brothers. It is now presented, according to Bova, not as a science fiction novel, but as a contemporary novel. Due to advancements in the field of cellular regeneration, it is no longer science fiction.

    The novel begins a little slow – with a trial that plays out between flashbacks throughout the story. The trial is conducted in a newly devised Science Court, established with the express purpose of determining the validity of the protagonist’s line of research. In spite of his objections and the Court’s original intent, the prosecutor continually brings up peripheral matters: Which brother’s idea was this growing of new organs and limbs? What about the lab’s scientist who died? What about stem cells and the babies who have to die to provide them?

    The trial gains momentum as the characters’ individual dramas unfold. Arthur Marshak is a scientist who was drummed out of academia and is set on winning a Nobel Prize from his commercial lab in lower Connecticut. His brother, Jesse, married Arthur’s former fiancé, understandably trashing the brothers’ relationship.

    “Julia, it isn’t right for Jess to drag you off to these places. They’re dangerous.”

    Very patiently, Julia replied, “As I’ve told you before, Arthur, dear, he’s not dragging me anywhere. I want to go. I want to be able to help him, to help those poor miserable people. I couldn’t remain here while he’s off in the bush somewhere risking his life.”

    …”Stay here where it’s safe,” I said, meaning, Stay with me.

    “No,” Julia said, as if she knew precisely what I meant. “No, I really can’t, Arthur. My place is beside Jess, wherever he goes, whatever he does.”

    Worse still, Jesse initially suggests the possibility of regenerating organs and limbs only to oppose the project in the Science Court. The Immortality Factor may be a glimpse into the inner circle of modern scientists, but the driving force is the novel’s characters. Bova makes the reader care about their fates – and not just the protagonist’s. I was invested in all of the major characters whom Bova gave voice to in short chapters from their own point of view.

    Buffeting Arthur about are: the possibility of a hostile corporate takeover, the love he still feels for his brother’s wife, religious and political opposition, office politics and two other women who have set their sights on him. Though Arthur is a bit self-absorbed and single-minded, you’ll want to see him succeed, if not in winning that Nobel Prize or in saving paraplegics, at least to become a happy man.

    AMAZON READER RATING: from 7 readers
    PUBLISHER: Tor Science Fiction (December 29, 2009)
    REVIEWER: Ann Wilkes
    AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
    AUTHOR WEBSITE: Ben Bova
    EXTRAS: Excerpt
    MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

    Our interview with Ben Bova on MARS LIFE

    Bibliography:

    Watchmen

    Exile Series:

    • Exiled from Earth (1971)
    • Flight of Exiles (1972)
    • End of Exile (1975)
    • The Exiles Trilogy (2011)

    Voyagers

    Orion

    To Save the Sun

    • To Save the Sun (1992) (with AJ Austin)
    • To Fear the Light (1994) (with AJ Austin)

    Grand Tour of the Universe:

    Moonrise (part of Grand Tour):

    Asteroid Wars (part of Grand Tour):

    Sam Gunn (part of Grand Tour):

    Nonfiction:

    Related:

    ]]>     /2009/immortality-factor-by-ben-bova/feed/ 0     A CURE FOR NIGHT by Justin Peacock /2009/a-cure-for-night-by-justin-peacock/ /2009/a-cure-for-night-by-justin-peacock/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:38:35 +0000 /?p=5865 Book Quote:

    “Disbarment had been a real possibility, so much so that my six-month suspension for admitted drug use actually came as a relief.”

    Book Review:

    Review by Bonnie Brody (OCT 24, 2009)

    In this debut novel, Justin Peacock offers the reader an intense courtroom thriller. From page one, I was hooked and stayed hooked until the very end. As with the best page-turners, you won’t want to put this novel down until you find out what happens.

    Joel Deveraux is working at a top-notch, white collar law office in New York City when he decides that he wants to date his legal assistant, Beth. Not only is this potentially unethical, but Beth also has the air of something forbidden; she is an adventurer in life, perhaps on the dark side. Joel soon finds out that Beth is playing with fire, a powdered fire called heroin.  While Beth is really into this drug and has already let her professional life flounder, Joel joins her as a weekend partier. He fools himself into believing that because he uses only on the weekend, he’s really okay. One day, at work, Beth overdoses and dies. Joel is at the center of the investigation and loses his job. He is given the option of resigning before he is fired and he takes this option. He also finds himself at the losing end of a civil lawsuit filed by Beth’s father who mistakenly believes that he was the one who got Beth into drugs. Joel loses his license to practice law for six months and finds himself unable to land a job at any reputable law firm. Word travels fast on the grapevine, even in Manhattan. Joel finally secures work as a public defender in Brooklyn. Though he’s not there for the idealistic reasons that many public defenders share, he appreciates the work. He’s not using heroin any longer but he’s not in a good recovery program either.

    Joel has been working as a public defender for about six months, primarily doing arraignments, when his boss offers him the chance to play second chair in a murder investigation. This is where things begin to pick up and get really interesting. The reader is privy to intricate courtroom dramas between the public defender’s office and the prosecution, between lawyers and clients and between victims and perpetrators. We are shown the ugly head of racism as it peaks out from every corner, especially in jury selection and in impulsive judgments about clients. The dialogue is very realistic and the lingua franca of the city projects appears to be genuinely portrayed.

    Joel is paired up with a senior defender on his team, Myra Goldstein. She is a seasoned six year veteran of the public defender’s office – tough, assertive, self-assured. She doesn’t see the need to have a second chair but her boss is concerned that she won’t have enough time to give to this case. Myra is also working on an appeal for another client who she believes is innocent but has just been sentenced to life in jail. Joel likes to be in the courtroom, an experience he did not have at his posh law office. The murder case also interests him a lot. A jewish student from Brooklyn College has been murdered at the projects. A second man, a black drug dealer, has been shot in the back twice and is alive. The alleged perpetrator, Lorenzo Tate, has been identified by an eye witness but continues to assert his innocence. It is a case with a lot more than meets the eye at first look. Joel learns that it is often not the best case that wins, but the best story. But what is the real story of this case? That’s what this book is about.

    The title of this book is interesting in itself and forms one of the backdrops for the story. Myra says to Joel that “the day tries to correct the night’s mistakes. Most of my cases, people have done something they never would’ve dreamed of doing in broad daylight.” Joel asks Myra if that makes them the night janitors. Myra says “We’re absolutely that … What else do we do but clean up after it? That’s why we’ll never run out of work. Not unless someone invents a cure for night.”

    While the novel is riveting at times and always a page-turner, the ending is a bit of a let-down. Despite fitting together nicely, I expected more of a drama and revelation than I was given. It seemed a bit too pat and a bit too far-fetched at the same time. Despite my disappointment with the ending, I could not put the book down until I got there. It had me in its clutches like a pit bull and I lost quite a bit of sleep last night.

    I think that Justin Peacock has a good career ahead of him as he polishes his style and continues in this vein. I haven’t read such a good courtroom drama since The Juror by George Dawes Green or The Thirteenth Juror by John Lescroart. Peacock has a wonderful way with dialogue that keeps the nail biting going strong. I wanted better physical descriptions of Joel and Myra from the author but I made them up for myself. Peacock knows the courtroom. He understands the confrontations and the ethical dilemmas. He understands addiction and the rationalizations that addicts make to themselves when they’re not in full recovery. He knows how to keep the reader turning pages. I look forward to his next book.

    AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 58 readers
    PUBLISHER: Vintage (October 6, 2009)
    REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
    AMAZON PAGE: A Cure for Night
    AUTHOR WEBSITE: Justin Peacock’s blog

    Daily News article on Justin Peacock
    EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
    MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More courtroom drama:

    Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell

    The Legal Limit by Martin Clark

    The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

    The Last Goodbye by Reed Arvin

    Bibliography:

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