Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: legal thriller

  • A LONG TIME DEAD by T.L. Bequette – Mystery, International Crime, Legal Thriller

     

    T.L. Bequette’s thrilling Joe Turner Mystery series continues in A Long Time Dead.

    This book echoes the style of Earle Stanley Gardner’s early whodunits, where there are two possibilities. The authorities see only one, and Jake will have to use his special brand of savvy to find the explanation for his client’s innocence.

    Joe, a California criminal defense lawyer, moves into his new Oakland office. As he unpacks a box labeled “Red Sox”, containing memorabilia for display, he comes upon an envelope containing two 2013 Red Sox ticket stubs, a credit card receipt, and a picture of him and his mom. The memories come flooding back.

    Joe hasn’t seen his friend, Owen Prescott, in ten years—not since the afternoon he gave Joe that envelope. Not since Owen fell off the radar.

    In 2013, 24-year-old Owen Prescott becomes a newly celebrated author, having produced a best-seller during graduate school. In the process, he acquires a lawsuit filed by an envious, disgruntled professor, and an admiring stalker against whom he secures a restraining order.

    When the professor turns up dead, everything hits the fan.

    Upon the advice of his wealthy father’s attorneys, Owen fled the country on the day of the Red Sox game. He went underground, and no one has seen him since. Now Joe wonders about his friend and begins to ponder what really happened. Was Owen capable of murder? If not, who killed the professor?

    When he begins to delve into those questions, acquiring the police files on the case, Joe learns that Owen was recently sighted in Europe. Meanwhile, an FBI cold-case investigator follows the same trail, trying to close a net and capture Owen so he can be tried for the murder.

    Where Owen is, who he has become, and what he has been doing for ten years add additional dimensions to this mystery. His assumed safety falls apart around him, and surprising individuals both threaten and protect his secret. For one such character, the reader can only wonder what’s next.

    Bequette’s yarn introduces a plethora of multi-dimensional characters. Everyone’s motives help shape and move this convoluted plot forward to an unexpected and satisfying answer to “who done it?”

    From the very beginning, this story will hook readers. Fast pacing, clever plot twists, and intercontinental flavor make A Long Time Dead difficult not to finish in one sitting.

    5 Stars! Best Book Chanticleer Book Reviews

  • Blood Perfect: A Joe Turner Mystery by T.L. Bequette – Murder Mystery, Contemporary Mystery, Detective Fiction

    Defense lawyer Joe Turner encounters and defends the worst that Oakland, California has to offer in T.L. Bequette’s mystery novel, Blood Perfect.

    Turner promises to join the ranks of other beloved protagonists in mystery novels. He carries a cynical and hard-boiled approach to the realities of life and his work. Blood Perfect has some elements of Scottish Noir; the protagonist’s personal crises weave into the main plot. He has a personal reason for defending the accused and debilitating flashbacks from a childhood trauma. His struggles engender in him a strong sense of right and wrong.

    Turner’s college girl-buddy, the object of his unrequited lust, hooks him into a case that seems to defy logic. Alston Walker, a middle-aged black man with an unforgettable ugly face stands accused of stabbing Jefferson Beauregard Devaney, a middle-aged white man, after an argument over rent. Seventy dollars. Alston has an alibi and Devaney has no reason to lie. But why would Devaney accuse the wrong person?

    This mystery hasn’t yet shown all its parts.

    P.I. Chuck Argenal, an aging deadhead with a penchant for flip-flops and cargo shorts, and Deputy District Attorney Matt Eisner, an old friend of Turner’s deceased father, join his posse. They can prove Walker’s innocence. But when he learns the fraudulent truth of their key witness, Joe must report it—the verdict cannot stand. Yet, in his gut, he believes whole-heartedly in Walker’s innocence. He drives hard to discover who truly attacked Devaney. That truth arrives with an epiphany that may change his life forever.

    Different voices tell this story in a sometimes-non-linear chronology. The complex characters will engage readers as much as the questions of the mystery itself. Their yarns within yarns conceal and reveal their personalities and their part to play in the case.

    The murder of his father has haunted Joe since he was twelve years old.

    He suffers troubling flashbacks throughout the story, adding an intriguing dimension to his character. In fact, the finale holds a final twist regarding the “who” in the whodunit leaving readers ready for more.

    T.L. Bequette masterfully builds his series, creating growth in his characters through each novel. Combining supreme character building and a fast-paced mystery with enough twists and red herrings, readers won’t be able to set the book down until the final page.

    In short, Joe Turner is well on the way to becoming a fixture in contemporary mystery fiction.

     

     

    Chanticleer Book Reviews 5 Star Best Book silver foil sticker

  • The Discovery by Patrick M. Garry – Legal Thriller, Suspense/Thriller, Mystery Thriller

    Blue and Gold Badge stating that The Discovery By Patrick M. Garry won the M&M Grand Prize AwardPatrick M. Garry’s The Discovery encompasses a narrative that traverses a family legal case jigsaw puzzle toward a discovery of self by exploring the ghost of ancient regrets, basic human desires, and questions of faith.

    Frank Horgan, a former lawyer at one of Minneapolis’ largest firms, now practices small-case litigation in the little community of Basswood Hills. Frank, a victim of his own follies, has one more chance to restore his career to its former glory. But not before a huge legal matter comes knocking on his door at his father’s diner. This case kicks off the legal drama, bringing in several main and secondary characters to play their parts in the ultimate discovery of buried contentedness and eventually a scandal that breaks into the national newspaper.

    Meanwhile, Frank comes upon the case of the most prominent McCorkle family in Basswood Hills.

    Clayton McCorkle made a contract nearly a decade ago for his children to own the McCorkle Farm Equipment Company. But now, Clayton wants to reclaim his business. As his lawyer, Frank must overturn the agreement in order to reclaim Clayton’s ownership of the company from the children. The McCorkle kids’ choice of a huge New York firm for representation causes Frank to dig deeper.

    It seems that the kids’ are involved with the commodities hedge fund, Parnassis, which owns a bin site adjacent to McCorkle land, and is coincidentally, also represented by the same huge New York firm. Parnassis’s urgent involvement in the case as well as the McCorkle siblings’ sudden generosity in preserving a portion of factory land around the bin site as a nature preserve reinforce Frank’s belief that there is more to this story than meets the eye.

    Frank confronts a dilemma.

    Enter Emily, an ex-nun and Frank’s road to faith, who seeks funds for a social cause benefiting women. Only, the funds are contingent on Frank’s losing the McCorkle lawsuit. Frank, as Clayton’s lawyer, must not only contend with the big firm lawyer’s blackmailing and unethical practices, but confront rumors of bodies of Clayton immigrant workers buried twenty years ago at the McCorkle factory site. If that weren’t enough, Frank’s close friend, Martin, has his own set of reasons to weaken Frank’s victory in the case.

    The omniscient third-person narration of the story is the correct choice, in that, it allows for the characters’ implicit dialogues to gain depth into their development. Patrick M. Garry cleverly utilizes a non-linear narrative, the incorporation of first-person accounts written by Frank Horgan’s acquaintances and former clients that adds a sense of urgency and character development of the protagonist.

    A key theme in the novel is the nuanced relationship between moral emotions and behavior in human life.

    Frank’s ego compels him to always want to be linked with the most important cases – and to win. His pride and lack of judgement propel him to act in such a way that his profession and goals become jeopardized. As for Emily, she has felt the sting of her own past actions that cause her to doubt her ultimate trust and optimism in life. The continual struggle with guilt, as well as the search for meaning in life, dominate the novel. This reinforces the recurring topic in this author’s novels – life and the struggle of human beings to live in ways that transcend basic materialism and the grasp of destructive temptations.

    Infused with legal drama, religious themes, and a personal quest, The Discovery is an all-action adrenaline-filled novel readers’ won’t want to put down.

    Patrick M. Garry won Grand Prize in 2021 CIBAs in the Mystery & Mayhem Division.

    5 Stars! Best Book Chanticleer Book Reviews

     

     

  • CONTEMPT Of COURT by Ken Malovos – Legal Thriller, Courtroom Procedural, Family

    M&M Blue and Gold 1st Place Badge ImageWhat happens when a judge orders you, an attorney, to do something that you cannot possibly do without putting yourself in even greater legal jeopardy? What happens when you’re threatened with contempt of court for failing to follow the judge’s demand? That’s the crux of the legal issue faced by Sacramento trial attorney Mike Zorich in Contempt of Court, the first novel in writer Ken Malovos’ series about the Sacramento, Calif. lawyer.

    The threat of contempt is only one piece of the troubles that surround Zorich. He’s mugged, his home is broken into, his computer is stolen, a stranger tries deliberately to run him off the road, and even more weighs on his shoulders.

    Why is this happening to him? And could all these issues be related? Is this punishment by a former client for unsuccessfully defending him when he was a legal defender? Maybe someone in a current civil case he’s representing has strong enough reasons to want him harassed. And why does the judge in that complex  case present him with an impossible issue: to hand over documents that another judge in the same case has ordered to be kept under seal or face contempt of court, including jail time?

    This is a good novel for readers who enjoy legal fiction told with a a deep dive into the law.

    Contempt of Court offers an intimate view of the everyday world of a working attorney. Readers get an insider’s glimpse of Zorich’s law practice as well as how he as an attorney works with a colleague who is defending him. One of the strongest parts of the book is Zorich’s recollection of how he dismantled a hostile witness in court through skillful interrogation. It’s a close-up look of how an attorney operates in court that is not often given enough time in TV shows and other legal dramatizations.

    Zorich is an emotionally compelling protagonist, struggling as he copes with the loss of his late wife to cancer, his relationship with his college-age son, and with a girlfriend who must walk the  difficult line of being the new woman in his life after his tragic loss. But primarily this is a book about the practice of law and how those who serve learn how to abide by and pervert the causes of justice.

    Contempt of Court by Ken Malovos won 1st Place in the 2014 CIBA M&M Awards for Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mystery Novels.

     

    M&M 1st Place Gold Foil book sticker image

  • The LOTTERY GAME by Gerard Shirar – Suspense, Legal Thrillers, Mysteries

    The LOTTERY GAME by Gerard Shirar – Suspense, Legal Thrillers, Mysteries

    Cancer survivor Pete Morrissette wants to spend the remainder of his life relaxing beside the heated pool or strolling through the gardens at the up-scale assisted living retirement community. Instead, he’s “doing time” in FMC Devens, a federal prison hospital.

    How did mild, friendly Pete Morrisette end up the scapegoat in a con that duped Massachusetts’s Lottery out of nearly $5,000,000? While everyone in prison claims they are innocent, Pete truly is. Even one of the prosecuting attorneys can see that, but someone has to answer for the dirty deed, and Pete is an easy target.

    In Gerard Shirar’s latest suspense legal thriller, eighty-eight-year-old Pete is the perfect everyman. After leading a relatively quiet life, Pete plans on leading a relatively quiet retirement. A father, a husband, and an all-around decent man, nothing exciting or monumental ever happened in Pete’s average, upper-middle-class life. But all that changed when his wife of fifty-three years died. Pete moved to Brook Haven, a retirement home catering to a senior intellectual set, and, as one may expect, he soon became bored.

    When Manfred Toomey, a former big-wig businessman, moves into Brook Haven and establishes a gambling club, he befriends Pete. And when Toomey approaches him about organizing a lottery-playing group to raise money for a charity organization, Pete cautiously agrees. Pete is smart – but not smart enough to trust his instincts. His desire to help struggling families quiets his suspicions about the legality of what he’s been asked to do – and his common sense. He wants to help but ends up as a pawn for the Mafioso. Big money walks free while the once hard-working father and husband takes the fall to appease a misplaced need for justice – the appearance of it anyway.

    Shirar creates a compelling case in Pete’s story, so neatly fitting together that it’s frightening in its plausibility. He builds a resilient and relatable character in Pete, one who tells his story through an engaging second-person point of view journal from prison. Growing old isn’t for sissies, and through it all, Pete chooses to see his own story as “God’s lottery” and deals with whatever “fate and time” have given him.

    Just like Shirar’s other works, readers will find an intricate study of human nature and the vulnerability of those we care most about in this mystery thriller. Pete Morrisette’s story feels as if it could have been ripped from the pages of newspapers today as countless elderly are duped by those who would prey upon them. And that’s what makes The Lottery Game a must-read.

    Gerard Shirar is a Finalist in the 2020 Mystery and Mayhem Awards for When the Rules Don’t Apply.

     

     

  • RESUMED INNOCENT (A Sam Tulley Novel, Book 1) by Rene Fomby – Legal Thriller, Mystery/Suspense, Contemporary Literature

    RESUMED INNOCENT (A Sam Tulley Novel, Book 1) by Rene Fomby – Legal Thriller, Mystery/Suspense, Contemporary Literature

    Rene Fomby’s gripping novel, Resumed Innocent, is both a courtroom drama and a personal drama. In the book’s forward, Fomby tells readers that the story is “semi-autobiographical,” noting that as a criminal law attorney, he has found that “The reality of day to day criminal practice in Texas is simply too unreal to be believed.”  And, yet, he manages to convince the reader of the gruesome reality of crime scenes as well as the harsh reality of courtroom politics.  The guilty aren’t always those being held in jail cells; attorneys and judges don’t escape Fomby’s scrutiny, and the reader is made aware of just how complicated criminal law in Blair County, Texas, truly is.

    Fomby opts for a female protagonist to relay what’s just and unjust in a criminal law attorney’s daily life. Samantha Tulley, Sam for short, a widow with a small daughter, is as sharp as they come. She’s savvy enough to detect when a defendant is being railroaded or a judge is being underhanded. Her intelligence and wit, however, put her at risk for reprisals, acts of vengeance that will put her life at risk and have the reader turning pages as quickly as possible to keep up with a plot that escalates with action and suspense.

    Her clients, people accused of heinous crimes, are beyond fortunate to have Sam representing them. She defends a woman accused of plunging a knife into her former boyfriend multiple times and a man accused of murdering his wife and two small children. In one of the most riveting chapters of the book, the reader observes voir dire, jury selection, and witnesses Sam calculating who will and won’t support her client, all the while maintaining an expression that would sink her most formidable opponent at the poker table. This chapter alone would make the book a worthy read, but it’s packed with fascinating nuggets of courtroom drama throughout.

    Sam’s personal life is equally fascinating but also fraught with danger. Her deceased husband was the son of an eccentric member of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement, a group that rejects Vatican II and believes mass should be celebrated only in Latin. William Tulley didn’t approve of his son’s marriage to Sam, a Jewish woman, and is now demanding that a paternity test to be done on Sam’s young daughter. His first wife, Luke’s mother, resides in Italy and holds information that will enlighten Sam as to her father-in-law’s motives. Sam has enough enemies, in and out of the court system, to keep the reader guessing who is attempting to harm – even kill her. She has an advocate, however, in Harry, her intern who is a law student at Baylor University and whose family has had their own run-ins with Sam’s father-in-law.

    This book will certainly appeal to lawyers and law students, but also to anyone who loves a good courtroom drama. It’s also for readers drawn to strong female characters. Sam Tully is a working mother, a widow, an advocate for the wrongfully accused, and the friend you’ve always wanted.  You’ll finish this novel eager to continue her adventures in a forthcoming book.

     

  • ALMOST MORTAL by Christopher Leibig — a high octane legal thriller

    ALMOST MORTAL by Christopher Leibig — a high octane legal thriller

    The physical and metaphysical collide in this award-winning legal thriller that promises to leave the reader hungering for more.

    Part saint, part sinner, Deputy Public Defender Sam Young has an uncanny ability to work the legal system to his best advantage. With a super-human ability to ride the thought waves of others, Sam plays his hand like a mesmerist, planting ideas like seeds in people’s minds, “massaging” their thoughts to suit his needs. But underneath his self-serving agenda is an almost naïve desire to do good – a desire that compels him to take on private cases outside of his overloaded court schedule, not to mention outside of the law.

    Sam’s mastery of the gray areas of the law hits a wall when drop-dead gorgeous Camille Paradisi, a nun from Sam’s former Parish, dumps the proverbial Catch-22 problem in his lap. The Rosslyn Ripper, a serial killer stalking their streets, is confessing. The catch? He’s using the protection of the confessional to unburden his soul.

    With the clock against him Sam must find a way to break through the protective barrier Camille has built around her priest and access the information needed to reveal the killer. The only clue she’s willing to relinquish is a time-worn journal left at the church. Whether its contents reflect the grandiose ramblings of a delusional mind or of the killer himself remains to be seen. But one thing is certain. The DNA recovered from its pages present improbable if not impossible results, propelling Sam into world where the physical and metaphysical collide.

    Attorney Sam Young is clearly a protagonist for the new millennium. Cynical, self-destructive and heroic to a fault, Sam Young is a modern-day standard bearer for the underserved segment of society. But no one in this extraordinary cast of characters is who they appear to be: leaving Sam to juggle conflicting agendas, hidden truths and a reality so mind-bending that it defies everything he believes.

    With equal doses of insight and imagination, author Christopher Leibig draws on his experience as a defense attorney to provide a keen sensory awareness of the hectic and often desperate inner workings of an ego-driven legal system.

    Blending the high-octane thrust of a contemporary legal thriller with the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Almost Mortal” cleaves a new, inventive niche in the legal thriller genre. This fast-paced legal thriller will leave the reader hungering for more. A terrific read!

     

  • Murder One by Robert Dugoni

    Murder One by Robert Dugoni

    In Murder One, lawyer turned novelist, Robert Dugoni has conjured up an intense page-turner that deftly mixes drama, mystery and suspense that will keep you guessing until its final pages.  Dugoni’s vivid characters in his novel are marvelously believable, as are the Seattle locales that are described. (more…)