Pro Bono

Thomas Perry is the author of almost 2 dozen books. Kirkus calls this a "lumpy but irrisistible thriller" and summarizes the plot as follows:

"Three years after George Ellis left a party he was hosting and never returned, his wife, Vesper, notices that some of his investment accounts have been shrinking instead of growing. Suspecting fraud, she consults Charles Warren, who’s been recommended by a mutual friend. Charlie turns out to be an excellent choice for several reasons. He’s both an attorney and accountant, so he’s good with numbers. He’s hard to bully, as any number of bankers and potential assailants learn to their cost. And he has both sympathy for the victims of fraud and extensive criminal experience, which began long ago when he raced after his fleeing stepfather, Mack Stone—who’d plundered the accounts of Charlie’s mother—running him off the road into a fatal crash that’s never been tied to Charlie except by Andy Minkeagan and Alvin Copes, two convicts who turned up at the scene of Mack’s accident ahead of the police, ran off with his financial papers, and are still bent on finding a way to cash in on their discovery. In fact, Charlie and Vesper are surrounded by so many lowlifes in pinstripes that it’s a good thing they have each other. As the story goes on, though, the obstacles to Charlie’s legal victories seem to fall away, and readers familiar with Perry’s knack for steering his tales in new directions they never saw coming may wonder what will happen during those last hundred pages. A series of completely new threats against a completely different person, that’s what. A model of suspense, though not of construction."

The Wall Street Journal praises this latest work: "Few crime-fiction authors are as skilled as Thomas Perry at keeping readers off balance and in suspense. Mr. Perry’s “Pro Bono,” a cutthroat caper of embezzlement and revenge, repeatedly shifts direction as its unpredictable plot unfolds." 

 

Guilt by Association

This book by Marcia Clark (of O.J. Simpson lead prosecutor fame) is the first in her "Rachel Knight" series. Rachel is an assistant district attorney for the L.A District Attorney's "Special Trials Unit," Which handles the "toughest, most sensitibe, and most celebrated cases" (book jacket) that come to the DA's office. She lives for her work--smart, ambitious, hard-charging; not surprisingly, she has not been able to sustain a long term relationship with a man. One evening, after a long day, she's on her way home to the Biltmore Hotel, where she lives,  when she notices a lot of police activity nearby. When she checks out the scene, she finds her colleague Jake Pahlmeyer and a young male prostitute have been found dead in a seedy motel room. Rachel cannot believe the innuendo coming from all directions and the tentative conclusion that Jake killed the boy and then himself. Rachel is determined to clear Jake's name if possible and so begins discretely investigating on her own, even though her boss has specifically warned her off. She is also assigned one of Jake's cases, the rape of a 15-year-old girl who is the daughter of a big donor of the current DA, so the pressure is on. Her friend Bailey Keller, a detective with the LAPD, agrees to help her with both cases. 

Kirkus calls this "a corker of a debut" and describes Rachel as "a brainy,  plucky female prosecutor." Publishers Weekly says of this "triumphant fiction debut" that "Readers will want to see a lot more of Knight, who combines strength of character and compassion with all-too-human foibles." Booklist also offers a glowing review: "pairs her knowledge of the L.A. judicial scene with a surprising flair for fiction in a remarkably accomplished debut novel....Clark offers a real page-turner here, with smart, fast-moving prose; a skillfully constructed plot; and a protagonist well worth knowing. Rachel, whose past is only hinted at, is a well-rounded character who's as tough with suspects as she is sensitive with young victims. A top-notch legal thriller that will leave readers wanting more...a genuinely high-quality novel."

While Justice Sleeps

I read this book a while back and just realized I hadn't posted about it. This is rising Democratic star Stacey Abrams' first dip into fiction writing after two non-fiction books.   The premise is that a Supreme Court Justice, irascible Howard Wynne, has slipped into a coma leaving his law clerk, Avery Keene--not his estranged son or wife--as his legal guardian. When Avery gets a strange call from the woman who had been his home health nurse, she goes to see her and finds her murdered. The stakes rise from there as people try to discredit Avery, the wife tries to have the judge taken off life support, and the son offers to throw his lot in with Avery to figure out what is going on. Justice Wynn was likely the swing vote on a pending case involving a biotech firm, a case that is at the heart, we learn of a worldwide conspiracy.

I love this summary from The New York Times : "The seemingly misanthropic and possibly paranoid Associate Justice Howard Wynn insults the president of the United States to his face; bemoans the ravages of Boursin’s syndrome, an apparently degenerative brain disease that is sapping his mental acuity; inveighs against the capacity of humans to deploy scientific breakthroughs for dangerous ends; refers to himself as a threat to national security; harries a nurse who has been blackmailed into spying on him; designs chess-related clues to his investigation of undescribed matters in a case pending before the court; and sequesters them for one of his law clerks to decode — all before lapsing into a coma induced by what may be a suicide attempt. Whereupon the nurse, contrary to instructions from her unknown blackmailer, saves Wynn’s life by calling 911." They admire her ability to weave multiple threads of plot together, but bemoan her superficial character development.

Booklist calls it a "gripping legal thriller," and I agree that, for all its flaws (see Kirkus) once started, you will want to finish this book.

The Holdout

This novel by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Graham Moore deals with a highly sensational murder trial that takes in Los Angeles in the spring and summer of 2009. A part-time English teacher is accused of killing a 15 year old female student because they had been socializing outside of school and somewhat incriminating texts were found. There was also some of her blood in the front seat of his car. The teacher, Bobby Nock, is black and the missing girl (for no body has ever been found), Jessica Silver, was white and the daughter of a very wealthy real estate developer.  One member of the jury, Maya Seale, is not convinced he is guilty and thinks race is playing a significant role in both the trial and the jury's deliberations. She holds out and eventually convinces or badgers the other 11 jury members into returning a verdict of not guilty. Although the jurors were sequestered, their names were leaked and, after the trial, the public vitriol against them damaged their lives.
What Maya took from this experience was a desire to better understand the justice system and so she went to law school and is now, 10 years later, a practicing attorney. Another member of the jury, Rick Leonard, with whom Maya had an affair while they were sequestered for the trial, and who is black, takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of Jessica's murder. In a book he writes, he pillories Maya as the driver behind the jury's verdict. When a true-crime TV series decides to do a special on the 10th anniversary of the trial, Maya is initially adamantly opposed to participating. But her law partners think it will add cachet to her reputation and convince her to attend. Rick Leonard is promising to reveal information he has turned up in his investigation that will settle the question of Bobby Nock's guilt. But, on the first night the former jurors are reunited at the original hotel of sequester,  Rick and Maya get into a heated argument over a drink in her hotel room and she leaves to cool off. When she returns, it is to find Rick dead in her room and herself accused of killing him. Maya, thanks to her partners and her reputation, is let out on bail and decides she must figure out what information Rick had that probably got him killed. And the person who would know that is Bobby Nock, if only she can find him.
Moving back and forward in time, various chapters reveal  each individual juror's thinking during the time of the trial. This is a very twisty plot that raises the important question of whether or not justice is always served by the legal system.
Reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and The Guardian.