A solid legal thriller that tramples tedium and melodrama.
In Cleveland’s debut thriller, two attorneys who share a volatile past face off in a murder trial.
The small town of Big Shanty, Va., doesn’t see too much crime, so the murder of a family in their home immediately grabs the headlines. Prosecuting attorney John Keene seems to have an easy case after the surviving twin son provides the cops a viable suspect. But the quick arrest of the alleged perp, drug dealer Larice Jones, doesn’t placate Keene after he learns public defender Nolan Getty is handling the case. The two lawyers faced off years ago; mutual animosity has lingered. Both men manipulate the justice system and sift through lies to win the trial—and defeat each other. Cleveland’s story sizzles in and out of the courtroom. Its nonlinear structure, which bounces back and forth between the ongoing trial and preceding events, keeps the narrative moving at a crackling pace. In the same vein, suspense is rigorously preserved: Most big reveals happen in the courtroom, not via omniscience, and there’s a persistent uncertainty as to whether Jones is guilty. The highpoints of the novel are its two thematically distinctive leads: Keene wants justice, Getty is looking to protect constitutional rights, and each man thinks the other is working against him. Keene is given a more profound backstory, but Getty, whom the narrative tends to favor, is the greater of the two, helped by the fact that he’s pitted as the underdog, having lost the previous case to Keene. Some of the plot twists are predictable, but that doesn’t matter; it’s more rewarding to watch the attorneys swing at a curveball than to watch the pitch itself. The supporting characters are a vibrant bunch, too, ranging from naïve, inexperienced assistants to Getty’s perhaps-schizophrenic second-in-command, Rick, who’s prone to standing alone in a closet for no discernible reason.
A solid legal thriller that tramples tedium and melodrama.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-1467962018
Page Count: 286
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
