The Plea

 Fiction by Steve Cavanaugh

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is the sequel to The Defense, which I read recently. In this story, con artist turned defense attorney Eddie Flynn is approached by the FBI to help them uncover a money laundering scheme. All he has to do is convince a tech billionaire accused of murder to hire him (Eddie) for his (the billionaire guy's) defense.

The problem is that Billionaire Guy already HAS a lawyer, and it's a super-duper expensive fancy one. But the FBI says Eddie has to get hired, pronto.

Oh, and if he doesn't succeed they will arrest his (Eddie's) wife.

This was an exciting story with great characters and several surprises.

The Defense

 Fiction by Steve Cavanaugh

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I read a novel by this author recently that I discovered was #3 in a series (see below), so I went and got this book-- it's #1.

In this story, Eddie Flynn is a New York City man who has been a con artist, an alcoholic, and a defense lawyer; however, he's not currently any of those things. Then he is contacted by the Russian mob with the news that they have kidnapped his daughter in order to force him back into defense law, and maybe into the con game as well...

This was an exciting story with lots of plot twists and several surprises.

I also read recently by this author: Thirteen

Thirteen

 Fiction by Steve Cavanagh

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Attorney Eddie Flynn has a strict policy: he will only defend clients that he genuinely thinks are innocent. In this story, he's given the opportunity to gain a major paycheck by defending Bobby Solomon, a Hollywood star accused of murdering his wife and her bodyguard, but he needs to be convinced that Bobby is truly not guilty, and the actor is definitely lying about something. 

And then there's the crazy guy who has infiltrated the jury, who may be the real killer....

This was an exciting thriller with several surprises. I will look for more by this author; this is apparently #3 in the Eddie Flynn series.

Saving Max

 Fiction by Antionette Van Heugten

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Danielle's teenage son Max is severely depressed, suicidal, and acting out violently. She is forced to take him to a residential mental facility where she hopes Max can get help. But Max seems to be getting worse instead of better, and he ends up accused of murdering another patient! Can Danielle prove his innocence, as she hopes to do?

This was an okay thriller, but it had a lot of unbelievable elements (especially in the courtroom scenes), and Danielle exhibited a raging case of Hell-Bent Syndrome**, which can be tiresome to read about. 

**Hell-Bent Syndrome

(See The Shape of Snakes by Minette Waters)

This is where the protagonist spends the majority of the book Hell-Bent on solving/getting to the root of whatever the problem of the story is (to the exclusion of everything else in his/her life), while EVERYONE else tells him/her to STOP IT. Many times this path involves the main character getting (or coming perilously close to being) fired, evicted, divorced, disowned, and/or bankrupted, all in pursuit of the elusive TRUTH that he/she is SURE is about to be found.

In real life, this would land our friend the protagonist straight in the looney bin. Think about it: When EVERYONE else's version of reality is the polar opposite of yours, that is called, "You're crazy, dude." (In layman's terms.) But not in the world of the Thriller Novel.

In the Thriller Novel, the sufferer of Hell-Bent syndrome is inexplicably and against all odds proven right in the end, and gets to say "I told you so!" to all the nay-sayers in his/her life who thought he/she was nuts. And then he/she magically recovers everything lost during the downward-spiral portion of the story, like the proverbial country song played backwards. ("You get your wife back, your truck back, your job back...")

The Truth About the Devlins

 Fiction by Lisa Scottoline

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

TJ Devlin is the black sheep of the successful Devlin family, who all work together at the family law firm. When TJ's brother John asks him for help, TJ is glad to do it, and also maybe a little glad to not be the one screwing up this time. But John's in more trouble than he has let on, and he may end up casting TJ as the screwup once again.

This book had a new annoying plot device that seems to be a combination of two I've already identified. (See below.) I think I'll call it "My-Guy-Can't-Catch-a-Break-Syndrome." 

It's where the protagonist falls into the trap of his enemy (whom he doesn't know is an enemy), gets blamed for everything that the enemy set him up to take the fall for, and then everyone refuses to believe in his innocence. The reader sees the trap coming ("Oh-No-I-Can't-Look-Syndrome"*) and all other characters are staunchly against the protagonist, who is sure he is right ("Hell-Bent-Syndrome."**) 

The story comes out all right at the end but it's kind of an unpleasant ride.

I also read and liked much better by this author: What Happened to the Bennetts

**Hell-Bent Syndrome

(See Come Home by Lisa Scottoline)

This is where the protagonist spends the majority of the book Hell-Bent on solving/getting to the root of whatever the problem of the story is (to the exclusion of everything else in his/her life), while EVERYONE else tells him/her to STOP IT. Many times this path involves the main character getting (or coming perilously close to being) fired, evicted, divorced, disowned, and/or bankrupted, all in pursuit of the elusive TRUTH that he/she is SURE is about to be found.

In real life, this would land our friend the protagonist straight in the looney bin. Think about it: When EVERYONE else's version of reality is the polar opposite of yours, that is called, "You're crazy, dude." (In layman's terms.) But not in the world of the Thriller Novel.

In the Thriller Novel, the sufferer of Hell-Bent syndrome is inexplicably and against all odds proven right in the end, and gets to say "I told you so!" to all the nay-sayers in his/her life who thought he/she was nuts. And then he/she magically recovers everything lost during the downward-spiral portion of the story, like the proverbial country song played backwards. ("You get your wife back, your truck back, your job back...")

*Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome

(see After Anna by Lisa Scottoline)

That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.

First Witness

 Fiction by 

https://www.amazon.com

Emily is a lawyer who hasn’t been back to her small hometown in twenty years. When a bad breakup and other circumstances send her there, nearly the first person she sees is her old high school boyfriend, and he’s being arrested for murder! Will she take his case? (Duh.)

This was an okay legal thriller, light on the “thrill” part. I was surprised by the ending. 

Don’t Believe It

Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Charlie Donlea

https://www.amazon.com

In 2007 on the island of St Lucia, American vacationer Julian Christ was murdered.  His girlfriend Grace Sebold was quickly charged with and convicted of the crime, and sentenced to life imprisonment despite her protestations of innocence. But now, ten years later, true-crime documentary filmmaker Sidney Ryan is looking into the case. 

Was Grace wrongly convicted or did the St. Lucia police have it right all along? What will be uncovered through the documentary filming?

This was an interesting story with surprises; I'm not sure about the ending. Maybe it's a setup for a sequel?

I also read by this author: Some Choose Darkness

I also read (for free!) by Amazon Prime Kindle: The Couple Across the Street

After Anna

 Fiction by Lisa Scottoline

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, Dr. Noah Alderman is on trial for the murder of his stepdaughter Anna. There seems to be an awful lot of evidence against him, but he maintains his innocence. Then the story goes back in time a bit to explain what happened before.  

So the first 300 pages went that way: a chapter about the progression of the trial and then a chapter about the backstory: how Anna had unexpectedly come to live with her mother and Noah and had immediately begun stirring up trouble.

The whole setup gave me a bad case of Oh-No-I-Can’t-Look Syndrome**, because Noah and his wife were making glaring mistakes in dealing with Anna’s manipulative tactics. Anna was obviously aiming to set Noah up as the bad guy, and everyone played right into her hands. Still, it didn’t make sense that she’d ended up murdered. 

That is, it didn’t make sense until we got to the twist. After that, the story got really interesting! (finally) I just don’t know why it took us 300 pages to get to the twist; the whole book is less than 400. 

So this was a good book at the end, if you can get through the (long) beginning.

I also read recently by this author: What Happened to the Bennetts

** Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome

(See The Southern Book Club... by Grady Hendrix)

That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.

Relative Justice

 Fiction by Robert Whitlow

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is about a small family law firm that gets involved in a potentially big patent lawsuit. 

I characterized it as as a "legal thriller" but it's much more slow-paced than an actual thriller novel. Still, it was a good story and I really liked the characters.

I also read by this author: A Time to Stand

A Killer’s Wife

 Fiction by Victor Methos

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Sixteen years ago Jessica Yardley was a photographer expecting her first child with her husband Eddie Cal, when it was discovered that he was actually a serial killer nicknamed the Dark Casanova. Since then she's been to law school and has become a federal prosecutor, all while her daughter Tara has grown to a teenager and her ex-husband Eddie has sat on death row.

Now there's a copycat killer on the loose and the FBI wants Yardley's help in catching him. Will she jeopardize her current relationship with her boyfriend Wesley, and possibly her daughter's safety as well, to work on this case?

Well, obviously she will, or else there would be no book.

Although some parts of the plot were difficult to believe, in general this was a good-enough mystery/thriller, a solid one-thumb-up. The surprise ending, however, bumped it up to one-and-a-half!

The Quiet Boy

 Fiction by Ben Winters

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I categorized this novel as a sci-fi legal thriller, which sounds like a weird combination. And indeed it was…

There’s the family of a boy who has had a freak accident —or maybe he’s possessed, or something— and an ambulance-chasing lawyer who brings his fourteen-year-old son to work. And there’s the same people around ten years later, as a fresh tragedy brings them together again. 

I really liked the characters and the the story was good in general, but I had some trouble with the ending. It didn’t seem to resolve the main plot points completely. 

I also read by this author: Inside Jobs. 

A Time For Mercy

 Fiction by John Grisham

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1988, John Grisham published his first novel, A Time to Kill, a great courtroom thriller about Jake Brigance, a lawyer defending a man who killed his daughter's rapist. This book returns to the same town and takes place only five years after the events of that first book, although it was published in 2020.

In this book, Jake Brigance once again is defending a murderer in a case of what might be called justifiable homicide. But this story is more complicated, and unfortunately it's less enjoyable to read.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the ending ruined this book for me. The story was good up until I got near the end and realized that no resolution seemed to be in sight. The best thing about fiction is the fact that the author can tell you a full story and its ending. In this book I think Mr. Grisham forgot that his job is to tell us how the story ended.

I also read recently by this author: The Guardians

The Holdout

 Fiction by Graham Moore.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Ten years ago, a man called Bobby Nock was accused of a brutal murder, tried for the crime, and acquitted by the jury. Maya Seale was on that jury, and no one will let her forget it. After coming out of sequestration, she and the other jurors find themselves vilified by the media and public opinion. 

Under the pressure after the trial, almost every other member of the jury recanted on their position, and insisted it was only Maya's strong persuasion that convinced them to find Bobby Nock not guilty. Although Maya still feels she was right in holding out against conviction, and that the prosecution's case had not been sufficiently proven, she is reluctant to attend a ten-years-later-reunion reality show and rake it all up again.

Still, Maya and (almost all) the other jury members head back to the hotel in which they had been sequestered ten years before... and something truly unexpected happens.

This was a really good book!

Exposed

Fiction by Lisa Scottoline

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this story, attorney Mary DiNuzio takes a discrimination case for a family friend, promising to waive her fee because she wants to help. She doesn't realize how much trouble this case will make for her and her law partner Bennie Rosato.

This book took me quite a while to get into, but it was eventually pretty good.

I also read recently by this author: Don't Go

The Guardians

Fiction by John Grisham

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I'll call it a legal thriller because that's the official Grisham genre, but this novel is much more "legal" than "thriller." This is the way John Grisham's books have been going recently, it seems. It's not necessarily bad, but it's not very thrilling either.

This story is about a lawyer who tries to help wrongly convicted people get out of prison, which sounds amazingly noble and (frankly) kind of hopeless. I mean, first you've got to find a prisoner who was actually innocent (sifting him out of all the others in prison who just claim they are innocent), and then you've got to get the government to admit that they made a mistake. And we know that no one likes to admit they made a mistake, especially not a bureaucrat. So this seems like a tough job.

I know that there are such people, both the wrongly convicted and the lawyers who defend them, but there sure aren't very many. There just can't be.

This story was pretty good; I liked the main character and the case was interesting. But this was not a thriller.

I also read recently by this author: The Reckoning

In Good Faith

Fiction by Scott Pratt

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Defense attorney-turned-prosecutor Joe Dillard has to help catch and convict a murderous gang with a creepy satanic bent in this legal thriller.

It was good.

I also read by this author: An Innocent Client

The Reckoning

Fiction by John Grisham

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1946, Pete Banning, World War II hero and respected Mississippi landowner, gets up in the morning, has breakfast, and goes to town. There her enters the Methodist church, walks to the preacher's office, and shoots Reverend Bell in the face.

Pete is immediately arrested and eventually sentenced to the electric chair. He doesn't deny the killing. But he absolutely refuses to tell anyone why he did it, not his wife, or his grown children, or his sister, or his lawyer, or even The governor of Mississippi!

The story unfolds from there, and I just had to find out why he did it. Why why why why WHY??

This was a good character story, and eventually the author does tell you the answer. (Whew!)

I also read recently by this author: Calico Joe

Chosen People

Fiction by Robert Whitlow.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This is, like other books by Robert Whitlow that I've read, a Christian legal thriller. It's complex but very good.

The story is about a young Israeli lawyer who lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. She works in international law and gets involved in some interesting business involving terrorism in her homeland.

A very exciting book!

I also read recently by this author: A House Divided

The Rooster Bar

Fiction by John Grisham


https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Have you ever read a legal thriller, such as one of the many written by the revered Mr. Grisham here, and said to yourself, "Boy I wish I were a lawyer! I should go to law school and then get an exciting an high -paying job after graduation!"

Well, according to this book: John Grisham says DON'T DO IT!!

At the beginning of this story, we are introduced to a group of law students who bought into that very fantasy. They applied to an easy-to-get-into law school, borrowed the exorbitant tuition from the government, and then studied through almost three years of instruction, only to find themselves staring at graduation with a mountain of debt and no job prospects whatsoever. So they decide to try to beat the system somehow and figure out a way out from under this problem.

I enjoyed this book; the characters were engaging and believable and the plot kept me interested.


I also read recently by this author: Camino Island

Damaged

Fiction by Lisa Scottoline.


https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a decent legal thriller about a lawyer trying to help a special-needs kid who lives with his aged grandfather. I've read several books in the Rosato & DiNuzio series by Lisa Scottoline, and while this one is not my favorite (that was probably Think Twice) it was still pretty good.



I also read recently by this author: Every Fifteen Minutes