The benefits of this briskly entertaining, if sometimes-familiar, debut outweigh the risks.
In Essay’s courtroom drama, an attorney whose career is on the rise faces off against a powerful pharmaceutical company.
Claire Hewitt is a new partner at the Philadelphia law firm of Blackman & Bradford, and she’s been made first chair in a case that could make or break her career. Wealthy Clifford and Margo Satori are accusing Novo Analgesic Systems, one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies, of medical negligence in the opioid death of their teenage daughter, Emma. The case is personal for Claire, who’s still haunted by the opioid death of her beloved younger sister. The Satoris want vengeance, and so does Claire: “A new revenge,” she declares. “A revenge called justice.” She’s paired with Alec Marshall, “the firm’s prodigy,” and harbors insecurities that any setbacks in the case will be blamed on “a female partner who’s not quite ready to run with the big boys.” However, she impressively takes on a formidable array of courtroom combatants, including the company’s in-house counsel, its slippery CEO, and a team of doctors with varying degrees of fidelity to the Hippocratic oath—as well as an obstinate judge. Readers won’t find very much that’s new in this thriller’s depiction of the devastation wrought by opioids and Big Pharma, which, in recent years, has become a ubiquitous villain in fiction. As such, revelations of corruption, conspiracy, and murder are unsurprising developments, although there’s no denying that the prescription drug industry remains a potent adversary. Fans of the courtroom-drama genre will even recognize an exchange from A Few Good Men (“Are we clear?” “Crystal”). However, Essay knows her way around this material and has clearly done her research on aspects of the opioid epidemic. Also, Claire and Alec make a good team, and readers will likely want to see them take on more cases.
The benefits of this briskly entertaining, if sometimes-familiar, debut outweigh the risks.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781647427047
Page Count: 352
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.
Hired to find the father of celebrity “muffin girl” Traci Beller 10 years after his disappearance, PI Elvis Cole uncovers a nefarious plot that puts his life and those he contacts at risk.
The sweetly likable Traci, now 23, has amassed a huge following with her website, The Baker Next Door, and on social media. Against the advice and self-interest of the people who over-manage her career, she decides to find out what happened to her father. Cole quickly determines that he was last seen at the SurfMutt hamburger stand, where he gave a ride to Anya Given, a troubled 15-year-old whose mother, Sadie, was late in picking her up from the skate park across the street. With the reluctant help of a scattered young woman who used to work at the burger joint, Cole tracks down Anya and Sadie, who is eventually revealed to have a criminal past. For his efforts, he’s jumped by a small gang of men who send him to the hospital with the worst beating of his life. (Asked by a nurse what his name is, the best he can guess is “Los Angeles.”) Still in recovery, Cole and Joe Pike, his ex-Marine partner, trace his attackers to Sadie, with unexpected results. As ever, Crais draws the reader in via his protagonist’s casual, dryly humorous manner and the book’s relaxed ties to classic noir. Slowly but surely, the plot gains intensity and deadly purpose. Just when you think the missing persons case is solved, Crais ratchets things up with a devastating follow-through. This is the L.A. novelist’s 20th Cole mystery, following such efforts as The Watchman (2007) and Racing the Light (2022). It may be his most powerful.
A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780525535768
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
An accomplished but emotionally undercooked courtroom drama by the author who made that genre popular.
Having been falsely convicted of murder himself years ago, prosecutor Rusty Sabich defies common wisdom in defending his romantic partner’s adopted son against the same accusation.
Now 76, Rusty has retired to the (fictitious) Skageon Region in the upper Midwest, far removed from Kindle County, Turow’s Chicago stand-in, where he was a star attorney and judge. Aaron Housley, a Black man raised in a bleached rural environment, has had his troubles, including serving four months for holding drugs purchased by Mae Potter, his erratic, on-and-off girlfriend. Now, after suddenly disappearing to parts unknown with her, he returns alone. When days go by without Mae’s reappearance, it is widely assumed that Aaron harmed her. Why else would he be in possession of her phone? Following the discovery of Mae’s strangled body and incriminating evidence that points to Aaron, Rusty steps in. Opposed in court by the uncontrollable, gloriously named prosecutor Hiram Jackdorp, he fears he’s in a lose-lose situation. If he fails to get Aaron off, which is highly possible, the boy’s mother, Bea, will never forgive him. If Rusty wins the case, the quietly detached Bea—who, like half the town, has secrets—will have trouble living with the unsparing methods Rusty uses to free Aaron. In attempting to match, or at least approach, the brilliance of his groundbreaking masterpiece Presumed Innocent (1987), Turow has his own odds to overcome. No minor achievement like a previous follow-up, Innocent (2010), the new novel is a powerful display of straightforward narrative, stuffed with compelling descriptions of people, places, and the legal process. No one stages courtroom scenes better than this celebrated Chicago attorney. But the book, whose overly long scenes add up to more than 500 pages, mostly lacks the gripping intensity and high moral drama to keep those pages turning. It’s an absorbing and entertaining read, but Turow’s fans have come to expect more than that.
An accomplished but emotionally undercooked courtroom drama by the author who made that genre popular.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781538706367
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
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