A thoroughly enjoyable page-turner.
For-profit prisons lie at the center of this second legal thriller in a series featuring Los Angeles defense attorney Bobby Earl.
Rucker (The Inevitable Witness, 2017), a criminal defense lawyer who’s had some high-profile trials during his long career, introduced his fictional lawyer in his previous novel, which had a case involving a safecracker charged with killing a police officer. In his late 30s, Earl finds the high-stakes intensity of the courtroom to be addictive: “There was a hunger in him that only being a trial lawyer satisfied.” He aligns himself with the less-privileged in life, so 50-something Kate Carlson isn’t like his usual clients; she’s a partner in an LA law firm. She’s also a spokesperson for Proposition 53, a California ballot initiative that would take money from for-profit prisons to fund public schools. She’s been charged with murder for smuggling a gun and a map into Haywood State Prison to break out an inmate named Adam Hartman. The attempt was foiled, resulting in the death of Hartman and a guard, Travis Miller. Kate says that she was set up, and Earl is skeptical of her claim, but she presents him with a follow-the-money argument that might just be solid: Prop. 53 would take funding away from private prison corporations, from locals who depend on prison employment, and from the prison guards’ union, whose dues buy the political influence that keeps profits flowing—by, for example, passing longer sentencing laws. Still, proving a setup will be difficult, especially as his opponents play dirty and will stop at nothing to claim victory. That said, Earl is known for winning supposedly unwinnable cases. The novel’s plot is enjoyably complex, referencing contemporary issues that go beyond schools and prisons: “The big money, the fuck you money, is in housing illegals for the feds,” says the corporate counsel for the company that runs Haywood. Also, federal oversight could expose abuses in private prisons—something that Hartman and Kate could have brought to light if the escape had been successful. The classic courtroom drama at the heart of this story is perfectly orchestrated, and the seemingly impossible odds make Earl’s masterful handling of evidence, witnesses, opposing counsel, the jury, and the judge wonderfully satisfying to read. Rucker has a knack for explaining the minutiae of legal procedure clearly as he weaves them into the story. The novel also ratchets up suspense in several effective ways; for example, Kate’s enemies knock Earl out, drug him, and get him locked up on a 72-hour psychiatric hold from which he must escape while not alerting the media. Other sides of Earl’s character are seen in, for example, his naming of his hound dog; when the canine was a puppy, Earl kept proclaiming “’Henceforth, your name shall be...’” until “the only name to which the dog would respond was ‘Henceforth.’ ” The affection and loyalty of Earl’s team, including secretary Martha Sullivan, officemate/mentor James McManis, and investigator Arthur “Manny” Munoz, also subtly reveal his personal qualities.
A thoroughly enjoyable page-turner.Pub Date: July 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73291-390-5
Page Count: 255
Publisher: Chickadee Prince Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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