“I felt as if he were subject to some uncontrollable urge to offend the proprieties, break the most primitive commandments of morality and decency. Was he under a compulsion to name out loud things and feelings that were taboo according to the rules of civilized society? Or was it maybe just a symptom of senility? More precisely, the randiness of old age that Hochkeppel had mentioned?”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage  (JUN 17, 2011)

The German novel, The Stronger Sex by Hans Werner Kettenbach is ostensibly about a lawsuit–a very grubby lawsuit, but the story is really about the tangled relationships between the people involved in the case. Lawyer Alexander Zabel, in his late twenties, is rather surprised to find himself pressured into representing the elderly, ailing German industrialist, Herbert Klofft in a case involving his former employee, 34-year-old Katharina Fuchs. Katharina, an engineer who has worked in Klofft’s company, Klofft’s Valves, for eleven years was fired after requesting sick leave. According to Klofft, Katharina’s work had been slipping lately:

“She had repeatedly been late for work, he said, she had taken to leaving her desk for an hour or two in the middle of the day, or went home before the office closed at five. In general she had made it obvious, he claimed, that in contrast to the last ten years she was no longer particularly interested in her job, and considered the work more of a tedious necessity.”

Katharina was warned about her “conduct.” Then came a request for a week off for “private reasons,” and when pressed for an explanation she refused to elaborate. The time off was denied but Katharina took the week off anyway, and according to Klofft, who went to the extraordinary lengths of hiring a private detective to check on her whereabouts, she spent the week in a luxury Swiss spa with her lover. Even though she presented adequate medical documentation upon her return, Katharina was fired. Now there is a hearing scheduled at an employment tribunal, and Zabel will represent the Klofft company against Katharina Fuchs.

Once Zabel takes the case, the circumstances of what should be a fairly straight forward matter immediately become murky. Katharina was Klofft’s long-time mistress for ten years, but their relationship palled due to a combination of circumstances. Zabel asks himself if Katharina was fired by Klofft out of jealousy and spite, and as he pieces together evidence for the employment tribunal, he peels away layers of the Kloffts’ unhappy marriage. Although Klofft is Zabel’s client, Klofft’s wife, an attractive artist named Cilly, becomes a little too involved in the case, and just what Cilly wants from Zabel isn’t clear. When she drops vital information Zabel’s way, he’s presented with a dilemma: he can’t confide aspects of the case without betraying client confidentiality, and yet Cilly provides him with information that will help prepare for the hearing. Why does Cilly want to gain Zabel’s trust? Is she merely feeling pity for a young lawyer who is forced to deal with irascible, autocratic, adulterous husband, or is she, in effect, working against her husband’s desire to squash Katharina?

As the novel continues, an overwhelmed Zabel finds himself drawn into the Kloffts’ unhappy world. Although he’s initially repulsed by Klofft–a man whose fossilized attitudes towards women are offensive and repugnant–gradually the two men form a tentative relationship which unfolds over details regarding the impending hearing and also through a series of chess games. While the male characters are the novel’s power brokers, it’s the women who seem to remain recalcitrant, mysterious and elusive as they move just beneath the surface of the events that take place. Cilly certainly shakes up Zabel’s self-assurance, but there’s another indecipherable woman in the novel: Katharina. Although she’s the catalyst for the novel’s action, she’s seen only from a distance through the eyes of other people, and her motives are difficult to peg. If, by her actions, she set out to drive Klofft to jealous rage, then she succeeded, but perhaps Katharina was just trying to finally escape Klofft’s yoke and suffocating, unwelcome attentions.

For American readers, the novel raises some cultural issues. While Zabel expects a lawsuit to follow the employment tribunal hearing, the phrase “sexual harassment” was absent from the text, and written by an American, this would be an entirely different novel. The Stronger Sex is an exploration of moral choices and moral consequences, and while the males in the novel may think that they have the power that grants them the upper hand, the very elusiveness of the book’s female characters accords them a different kind of strength, and that issue is at the heart of the novel. (Translated by Anthea Bell.)

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 1 readers
PUBLISHER:	Bitter Lemon Press (May 17, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Publisher page on Hans Werner Kettenbach  Hans Werner Kettenbach (in German)
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of:  The Lie by Petra Hammesfahr

Bibliography (translated only):

• Black Ice (2006)
• David’s Revenge (2009)
• The Stronger Sex (May 2011)

“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: The Drop Nine Dragons The Overlook Echo Park The Closers The Narrows Lost Light City of Bones Michael Haller: The Reversal Brass Verdict The Lincoln Lawyer Stand-alone mysteries: The Scarecrow Chasing the Dime Bloodwork

Bibliography:

LAPD Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch Series

• The Black Echo (1992)
• The Black Ice (1993)
• The Concrete Blonde (1994)
• The Last Coyote (1995)
• Trunk Music (1997)
• Angels Flight (1999)
• A Darkness More than Night (2001) *
• City of Bones (2002) /
• Lost Light (2003)
• The Narrows (2004) ***
• The Closers (2005)
• Echo Park (2006)
• The Overlook (2007)
• Nine Dragons (2009) ****
• The Drop (2011)
• The Black Box (2012)

Mickey Haller:

• The Lincoln Lawyer (2005) /
• The Brass Verdict (2008) **
• The Reversal (2010) **
• The Fifth Witness (2011)
• The Gods of Guilt (October 2013)

Other:

• The Poet (1996) ***
• Blood Work (1998) *
• Void Moon (2000)
• Chasing the Dime (2002)
• The Scarecrow (2009)

* 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:

• Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers (2006)

Movies from Books:

• Blood Work (2002)
• The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

“‘We could have you dead in a minute,’ the voice continued. ‘Remember that and listen hard. You drop this case, you forget about it. There’s people who don’t want this matter taken further. Now tell me you understand.’ The pressure at my neck eased, though other hands still gripped my arms hard.
I coughed, managed to gasp a yes.
The hands released me, and I dropped to the muddy ground in a heap….”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (FEB 26, 2011)

In his latest Tudor mystery, Heartstone, C. J. Sansom embroils his hero, lawyer and do-gooder Matthew Shardlake, in several intrigues that take him away from London for a large part of the novel. It is 1545, and the profligate King Henry VIII is squeezing his subjects dry in order to wage an expensive military campaign against France. The king has ordered English currency devalued, levied heavy taxes, conscripted every able-bodied Englishman, and even hired foreign mercenaries to wage war against the enemy.

Matthew, who is forty-three and hunchbacked, has never married but is a respected member of Lincoln’s Inn, in the Court of Requests. However, he frequently puts aside his professional interests to get personally involved in other people’s business. For instance, he visits Ellen Fettiplace, a woman who has been in Bedlam for nineteen years and has grown attached to Shardlake. Although he has no romantic feelings for Ellen, he is determined to find out who placed her in the institution and why. In another matter, Queen Catherine Parr asks Matthew to look into the case of Hugh Curtey, a ward of Sir Nicholas Hobbey. There is some suspicion that Hugh has been wronged and Catherine wants Matthew to investigate the allegation.

Along with his intrepid assistant, Jack Barak, Matthew takes to the road, and a long road it is. Not only will he end up in Portsmouth, where Henry’s huge militia is preparing to defend the English coast from invasion, but he will also tangle with ruthless and greedy men who are willing to kill in order to keep their secrets hidden. Barak would rather stay in London with his pregnant wife, Tamasin; however, in order to avoid military service, he accompanies Shardlake. Matthew is highly intelligent, compassionate, prone to melancholy, stubborn, and a bit obsessive. Even when threatened with bodily harm, he refuses to abandon his inquiries.

Heartstone is fluid, informative, entertaining, and a marvel of research. The author’s period detail and descriptive writing are impressive. He provides maps and background information that add realism to this complex tale. We inhabit sixteenth century England and experience what life was like for royalty, gentlemen, farmers, merchants, and soldiers (they sometimes ate rotten food, lived in flea-infested quarters, and took orders from arrogant and abusive commanders). Their reward? To get “ripped apart and slaughtered in battle.” We get glimpses of the powerful weaponry on a gigantic warship. In addition, the author points out the widespread corruption and favoritism at every level of government, and how bitter the enmity was between the affluent and those who lived from hand to mouth.

Each character is scrupulously depicted. Ellen at times appears to be mad, but she has moments of great calm and lucidity. What terrible memories have left her terrified of leaving the institution? Nicholas Hobbey and his wife, Abigail, are obviously keeping something from Matthew, but can he learn what it is in time to help Hugh? Among the villains is a familiar face, Sir Richard Rich, who is back to give Matthew even more grief. Some may balk at the story’s length (over six hundred pages), but those who enjoy high-quality British historical fiction will continue to welcome each new installment in this splendid series.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 24 readers
PUBLISHER:	Viking Adult (January 20, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on C.J. Sansom
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt – none available
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Revelation Dark Fire

Bibliography:

Mathew Shardlake, hunchback lawyer, 16th Century:

• Dissolution (2003)
• Dark Fire (2004; January 2005 in US)
• Sovereign (February 2007)
• Revelation (February 2009)
• Heartstone (January 2011 in US)

Standalone:

• Winter in Madrid (January 2008)

“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:	from 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: A Plague of Secrets Betrayal And a review of his stand-alone thriller: The Suspect

Bibliography:

• Sunborn (1981)

Auguste Lupa Series:

• Son of Holmes (1986)
• Rasputin’s Revenge (1987)

Dismas Hardy / Lt. Abe Glitskey Series:

• Dead Irish (1989)
• The Vig (1990
• Hard Evidence (1993)
• The 13th Juror (1994)
• A Certain Justice (1995)
• Guilt (1997)
• The Mercy Rule (1998)
• Nothing But the Truth (1999)
• The Hearing (2001)
• The Oath (2002)
• The First Law (2003)
• The Second Chair (2004)
• The Motive (2005)
• Betrayal (2008)
• A Plague of Secrets (009)
• Damage (2011)
• The Ophelia Cut (May 2013)

Wyatt Hunt / Insp. Devin Juhle:

• The Hunt Club (2006)
• Treasure Hunt (2010)

Gina Roarke / Insp. Devin Juhle:

• The Suspect (January 2007)

Music by the author:

• As the Crow Flies (2003)

“It always bothered Bosch when he saw justice and the law being manipulated by smart lawyers. His part of the process was pure. He started at a crime scene and followed the evidence to a killer.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (OCT 5, 2010)

Michael Connelly brings together criminal defense attorney Michael (Mickey) Haller and his half-brother, the cynical and battle-scarred LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, in Connelly’s latest legal thriller, The Reversal. Mickey calls himself “the defender of the damned,” a job he has had for over twenty years. “During that time,” he states, “I’d grown a suspicion and distrust of prosecutors and police….” Still, the Los Angeles District Attorney convinces Mickey to become an independent special prosecutor in the second trial of forty-eight year old Jason Jessup. The defendant has spent twenty-four years in San Quentin for abducting and strangling twelve-old Melissa Landy. Over the last two decades, Jessup has vociferously proclaimed his innocence while filing numerous motions and appeals in an attempt to have his conviction overturned.

Because of possible irregularities during the first prosecution as well as new DNA evidence, the California Supreme Court reversed Jessup’s conviction and sent the case back to Los Angeles County “for either retrial or dismissal of the charges.” Against his better judgment, Mickey agrees to prosecute Jessup, partly because it will give him an opportunity to work with deputy district attorney Maggie McPherson (one of his two ex-wives) and investigator Harry Bosch.

Jessup has a groundswell of support from the liberal media and an organization of lawyers known as the Genetic Justice Project. Although the physical evidence against the defendant is a bit shaky, the eyewitness testimony of Melissa’s sister, Sarah, who was thirteen when the murder occurred, has never wavered. Now thirty-seven, Sarah still stands by her identification of Jessup as Melissa’s abductor. However, Sarah has a history of drug use and run-ins with the law which the defense will undoubtedly exploit in an attempt to discredit her.

This is one of Connelly’s most suspenseful and engrossing legal thrillers in years. It has incisive and realistic dialogue, compelling courtroom scenes, well-drawn characters, a smooth and lucid prose style, and an absorbing, well-constructed plot. The only false note is that when Mickey is on the scene, he is the first-person narrator; the rest of the time, Connelly writes in the third person. This is slightly jarring; Connelly might have been better off sticking to the third person throughout. In any event, Haller shares the spotlight with Bosch and McPherson. In addition, FBI profiler Rachel Walling makes a strong cameo appearance when Bosch asks for her help in analyzing Jessup’s behavior. Harry stands out as the person most invested in nailing Jessup, partly because he is the single parent of a cherished daughter, and partly because he has worked tirelessly on hundreds of homicides during his thirty-five year career as a cop. He is passionate about finding the bad guys and putting them away so that they cannot do any more damage.

In The Reversal, the author demonstrates how politics and public opinion influence the legal process; how the stress of trying a high-profile case can lead to mistakes in judgment; and how, no matter how carefully they plan, lawyers and detectives should expect the unexpected. Readers who enjoy feel-good endings may balk at the novel’s disquieting finale. Others may find Connelly’s conclusion thought-provoking, daring, and original. It certainly demonstrates how life’s vicissitudes and the capriciousness of fate can undermine the search for truth and pervert the course of justice.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 94 readers
PUBLISHER:	Little, Brown and Company (October 5, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Michael Connelly
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	MostlyFiction (like many others) are great fans of Michael Connelly. As such, we have reviewed a lot of his books over the years: For these Harry Bosch reviews, go here: City of Bones, Lost Light, The Narrows, The Closers, Echo Park, and The Overlook For a review his latest Harry Bosch, Nine Dragons, go here. For these Michael Haller reviews, go here: The Lincoln Lawyer and Brass Verdict For these stand-alone mysteries, go here: Bloodwork and Chasing the Dime And go here for a  review of The Scarecrow

Bibliography:

LAPD Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch Series

• The Black Echo (1992)
• The Black Ice (1993)
• The Concrete Blonde (1994)
• The Last Coyote (1995)
• Trunk Music (1997)
• Angels Flight (1999)
• A Darkness More than Night (2001) *
• City of Bones (2002) /
• Lost Light (2003)
• The Narrows (2004) ***
• The Closers (2005)
• Echo Park (2006)
• The Overlook (2007)
• Nine Dragons (2009) ****

Mickey Haller:

• The Lincoln Lawyer (2005) /
• The Brass Verdict (2008) **
• The Reversal (2010) **
• The Fifth Witness (2011)
• The Gods of Guilt (October 2013)

Other:

• The Poet (1996) ***
• Blood Work (1998) *
• Void Moon (2000)
• Chasing the Dime (2002)
• The Scarecrow (2009)

* 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:

• Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers (2006)

Movies from Books:

• Blood Work (2002)
• The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

“Show me your hands!” Alves commanded, ducking behind another tree. He was less than ten yards away now. He put the light on the perp again.

In the artificial cone of yellow light, Alves saw that the figure was wearing a tuxedo.

Stepping from behind the tree, Alves made his way forward. The man stood unnaturally rigid. Not even a flinch as Alves stepped over brush and dry leaves to reach him. The man was ocean frank, like the girl. The scene was familiar. Nothing he had seen himself. But he had heard enough from his old sergeant Wayne Mooney to know what he had just found.

Book Review:

Review by Chuck Barksdale (JUN 12, 2010)

Raffi Yessayan’s second book, 2 in the Hat, is a somewhat disappointing, but still enjoyable sequel to his first book 8 in the Box. This book takes place 3 years after 8 in the Box and includes many of the same characters with continuing emphasis on Assistant District Attorney Connie Darget and police detectives Angel Alves and Wayne Mooney.

Detective Alves’ daughter accidently finds a dead girl in the playground where she and other members of the Mitey Mites football team that her father coaches are running a last lap after practice. Alves quickly runs to the scene and finds not only the dead girl but a dead man posed in a way that is similar to an old unsolved Prom Night Killer case his former sergeant Wayne Mooney told him about from ten years ago. Because of his prior experience, Mooney is reinstated to the homicide division to work with Alves to see if the Prom Night killer has returned or if this is the work of a copycat killer.

While Mooney and Alves are tied up on the Prom Night killer, Detective Ray Figgs is looking into neighborhood killings that appear to be gang related. Figgs has struggled in his job lately being more interested in drinking than solving murders, but something about these cases is keeping him sober enough to make him return to his former form.

Assistant District Connie Darget is always around to help the detectives with both cases and decides to look into the past Prom Night killings and provide his thoughts about the killer to the detectives. Detective Alves finds Darget more of a pain than a help as he ignores his ideas. Alves also becomes distracted by the three year old Blood Bath Killer case. He begins to think that maybe Mitch Beaulieu who they thought was the killer, and who had committed suicide before anyone could talk to him, may not have been the Blood Bath killer as he begins to suspect someone else who worked closely with Mitch Beaulieu.

The tension builds throughout the book as the detectives all work to find the killers while the killers work to keep the detectives from finding them. Yessayan includes a few twists along the way to keep the suspense building.

As in the first book, Yessayan uses a mix of third person perspectives to show the thoughts of Connie Darget, the homicide police detectives as well as a serial killer that keeps the police busy looking for clues. Of course, that is part of the problem I had with this book as much of the story seems familiar from the first book and not just because the characters are the same. Detective Alves is still having difficulty balancing work with family as he chases clues to a serial killer, Detective Sergeant Mooney keeps the pressure on Alves to work the case instead of going home to his family, Connie is still an attorney usually working to his own benefit and, of course, a serial killer is on the loose.

I’m not sure if reading the first book is beneficial or not to reading this book. Although Yessayan provides enough detail about the characters and back story that this book can be read as a standalone, he does keep some things from the reader that would be known if the first book had been read. However, I’m thinking that knowledge was not necessarily a good thing as some of the suspense that builds in the first book and again in the second book for a new reader was not as suspenseful to me since I knew something about a key character that was not provided to readers of only the second book. This may be another reason I was somewhat disappointed with this book.

Yessayan follows the same style as in his first book having many chapters (109 total) with each chapter in the perspective of one of the main characters. No doubt, James Patterson is one of the people who influenced his writing style. I actually enjoy this short chapter approach especially if I just have a few minutes to read a chapter. The change in perspective is done effectively as I never was confused about which character was the focus of that chapter.

One thing that is missing from this book that I enjoyed in the first book is more on the legal aspects and the lives and cases of the assistant district attorneys. This book is much more of a police procedural / serial killer suspense book and less of a legal thriller novel. With Yessayan’s own experience as a Boston district attorney, he was certainly able to bring much to these parts of the book and with less about legal issues and lawyers, he’s writing in areas that I’m sure he is familiar, but likely lacks the same in-depth experience that makes the story more realistic. Hopefully, he’ll bring more of his legal experiences to his future books and leave the serial killer novels to others.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 37 readers
PUBLISHER:	Ballantine Books; 1 edition (April 13, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Chuck Barksdale
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Raffi Yessayan
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: 8 in the Box

Bibliography:

• 8 in the Box (June 2008)
• 2 in the Hat (April 2010)

“She was alive when she was put in the bath?”
“I think so. There are other ways to drain a person of her blood, but the easiest way is to have the heart do the pumping for you.”
“So he puts his victims in the bathtub and slits their wrists. Are they incapacitated in any way? Unconscious maybe?”
“No trace of drugs in the blood.”
“So maybe he hits them over the head and knocks them out. Who knows? But whoever lost that blood is definitely dead, right?”
“Angel, I can’t say so with any scientific certainty, and this isn’t my specialty, but if that was Susan McCarthy’s blood in the tub, my guess is she’s dead.”

Book Review:

Review by Chuck Barksdale (JUN 12, 2010)

New author Raffi Yessayan’s first book 8 in the Box is a solid legal thriller based in Boston, Massachusetts that is also a well done and enjoyable police procedural. With a mix of perspectives, Yessayan shows the thoughts of the homicide police detectives and the district attorneys as well as a serial killer that keeps the police busy looking for clues.

The book focuses on several young assistant district attorneys, with the lead being Conrad “Connie” Darget, somewhat more experienced than the other attorneys and one that is respected for his success by both his male and female co-workers. Connie also develops good relationships with the police and works to earn their trust when he visits crime scenes. This also helps him in assuring the cases he tries will be managed correctly in the field so he will be more successful in winning his cases.

Connie gets to work with two main homicide detectives, new detective Angel Alves and the more experienced Sergeant Detective Wayne Mooney. The two detectives certainly are challenged to solve what become a series of missing people whose blood is left behind in a bathtub of water. The “Blood Bath Killer” is careful to not leave any significant clues as the two detectives work tirelessly to solve the murder. Mooney’s continual press on the young Alves does lead to some stress in Alves’ family as the added hours often leave him unable to participate in family functions his wife Marcy plans. The story includes several twists along the way as the killer confuses the detectives with no clues and a mix of victims.

Although this book is mostly about finding the serial killer, Yessayan does spend a fair amount of time building the back story of the various characters, with an emphasis on the attorneys. This makes sense since Yessayan spent 11 years as a Boston assistant district attorney and he is obviously comfortable writing about these experiences even if fictional. Yessayan spends the most time on Connie Darget and his cases along with his relationship with law student Andi Norton. Andi spends too much time on the cases Connie gives her and this only leads to problems with her law classes. Other attorneys include Mitch Beaulieu, a sensitive African-American attorney who struggles with the many cases against African-Americans, and Nick Costa who is more interested in impressing women then in being prepared for his cases which he never seems to win.

Yessayan’s style in the book is to have many chapters (85 total) with each chapter in the perspective of one of several main characters. Since the book doesn’t really feature one main character, many different perspectives are presented; however, Yessayan does a very good job of making it clear from whose perspective that chapter is in and at no time did I feel confused. Although I wasn’t sure about this approach at the beginning, I think it worked and allowed to get into the minds of the key characters, including the killer Richter, thus allowing the reader to understand what was going on in the book. Of course, although you do learn more from being in the mind of the killer, Yessayan does not give the reader too much information too soon.

I’ve just started Raffi Yessayan’s second book, 2 in the Hat, a sequel to 8 in the Box. Many of the same characters are back and the same mix of perspectives with short chapters is in this book. I’m not sure I agree with the numbering approach of the book titles, especially since the numbers are not in order. I had to keep reminding myself to read the “8” book before the “2” book. I’d suggest Yessayan use a different approach if he continues the series since this will be nearly impossible to keep straight after a few books in the series.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 24 readers
PUBLISHER:	Ballantine Books (March 23, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Chuck Barksdale
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Raffi Yessayan
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: 2 in the Hat

Bibliography:

• 8 in the Box (June 2008)
• 2 in the Hat (April 2010)

“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:	from 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: Ordinary Heroes Reversible Errors Personal Injuries

Bibliography:

• Presumed Innocent (1987)
• The Burden of Proof (1990)
• Pleading Guilty (1993)
• The Laws of Our Fathers (1996)
• Personal Injuries (1999)
• Reversible Errors (2002)
• Ordinary Heroes (2005)
• Limitations (2006)
• Innocent (2010)
• Identical (October 2013)

Non-fiction:

• One L: The Turbolent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School (1977)
• Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty (2003)

As Editor:

• The Best American Mystery Stories (2006) (with Otto Penzler)

Movies from books:

• Presumed Innocent (1990)

“Listen to me, Michael. There’s not a client in this world that’s worth your getting killed. Or even slightly maimed. You start being a lawyer and stop playing the Green Hornet.”

“Playing what?”

“Never mind. I forget you’re an adolescent. You know what I’m saying.”

Book Review:

Review by Kirstin Merrihew (APR 18, 2010)

Michael Knight may be too young to remember the Green Hornet, but this junior partner in the Devlin and Knight law firm spends a lot more time in Frame Up risking his life than he does cross-examining witnesses in a courtroom. In fact, his first act in Chapter One is to struggle back to consciousness to the voice of his anxious father-figure senior partner, Lex Devlin. Mr. Devlin, as Michael always calls him, tells the younger man he’s in Mass General Hospital and is “a roadmap of lacerations around the face.” Michael was wounded when a car he was walking toward exploded and he was “hit with something that felt like the defensive front line of the New York Patriots.” But it isn’t Michael’s injuries that pain him the most. Inside that car had been his best friend, John McKedrick.

Only a few days later Michael is up and around and attending John’s funeral. Also there is Benny Ignola, “legal counsel to the lower-to-middle-level Mafia” in Boston and the guy for whom John, also an attorney, had been working. Michael had been urging John to break away from his underworld ties, and recently he’d thought his friend might actually do it. Benny knows Michael and Lex Devlin steer a wide berth around mob work, but he nevertheless cryptically insists that he and Michael will need to talk.

Ignola is small organized crime potatoes, and someone Michael thinks he can ignore. But there are others who can’t be so easily dismissed: Michael soon gets the dubious “honor” of meeting powerful godfather Dominic Santangelo who, forty years ago, was like a brother to Lex Devlin and then-fighter-now-Catholic-priest Matt Ryan. Monsignor Ryan gathers them together again because Santangelo’s son has been arrested for John McKedrick’s car bomb murder. The old mob boss has no doubt in the world that his son, who has deliberately stayed out of his father’s business, is innocent. With the possibility that someone in his own organization has turned on him, Santangelo needs someone he can trust to represent his son.

Naturally, Santangelo’s request is one neither Mr. Devlin nor Michael want to touch with a ten-foot pole. However, the priest helps them see a slim chance of working good from all this, so reluctantly they take the case. It falls to Michael to start putting together the pieces of how the Santangelo kid, Peter, and his friend John are connected. Pretty soon, Michael is playing a life and death game with very ruthless people. And he does play games, gadding about setting up high-risk stings, trying to play off one international mob boss against others. Somehow, he and others in his vicinity (including a young woman whom he is trying to date) nearly meet their Maker on more than one occasion, and even though Mr. Devlin orders him to stop taking such foolhardy chances, Michael can’t cease his determination to play every deadly hand.

Coincidentally, John F. Dobbyn’s Frame Up happens to share some plot ideas with David Hosp’s Among Thieves. Now I don’t know about you, but my first choice for a legal thriller set in Boston and rife with Mafia figures would probably not revolve around art works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. But these two authors did make that choice. Hosp directly links his story to the real, still unsolved theft of paintings worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He even involves real mobster James “Whitey” Bulger * in his version of events. Dobbyn is more round-about; he doesn’t mention the Gardner Museum by name, and he merely describes one of the missing paintings. But in both novels, members of the mob have gotten themselves in deep you-know-what by trying to make windfall profits from either the original works or their counterfeits. In both books, merciless killers from Europe are after smaller-scale con men or crooks who have allegedly defrauded them. And in both, decent lawyers find themselves nearly in over their heads as they try to defend clients somehow mixed up with the famous art work, and have to use their smarts to try to outwit their bloodthirsty opponents. In Michael’s case, this means working with Benny Ignola, a desperate art forger, and going to Amsterdam to find out what his friend, John, might have sequestered there, all the while dodging hit men and death traps.

Young Michael Knight is more of a crusader at heart than Hosp’s older, somewhat jaded Scott Finn. But, unlike Scott, jaunty Michael seems to think he has an endless supply of lives to dangle in front of the bad guys. Even though he gives lip-service to Mr. Devlin’s demand that he stop doing things that could kill him, he would rather take the chances than return to the office without justice for those he represents, those he loves, and those who would spit on justice if they could.

Frame-Up distinguishes itself as crime fiction with deeply Catholic men as its heroes (and some of its gangsters too). It features law partners who view the world as God’s creation where Man is responsible for his actions and where brotherhood, honor, love, and humanity all matter dearly. Retribution, and, more importantly, redemption, have not lost their meanings in this world either. This is a refreshingly straightforward moral framework that engenders respect for Devlin and Knight, just as they feel it for each other in their own father/son way. Although Michael’s ability to stay alive does stretch credibility (in the same way many thriller heroes’ actions do), he’s an attorney who’ll fight for what’s right even if he has to do it unconventionally. What more could one want?

*A note of interest: Just last month, a federal prosecutor pursuing this case said he didn’t think Bulger had anything to do with the crime.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 8 readers
PUBLISHER:	Oceanview Publishing; 1 edition (March 1, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Kirstin Merrihew
AMAZON PAGE:	Frame Up
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	John F. Dobbyn
EXTRAS:	An interview with John F. Dobbyn
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Among Thieves by David Hosp

Bibliography:

• Neon Dragon (March 2007)
• Frame Up (March 2010)

“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

• Dark Harbor (June 2005)
• Innocence (July 2007)
• Among Thieves (January 2010)

Stand-alone:

• The Betrayed (July 2006)

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 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