[.ca] The Attorney (ISBN 0743543173)

From Amazon.com:
Sleuthing California defense counsel Paul Madriani lands one of his twistiest cases to date. His client, sport fisherman Jonah Hale, won $87 million in a lottery but lost his heart. Jonah's got custody of his eight-year-old grandkid Mandy, because his daughter Jessica is a cokehead party animal. Sprung from jail, Jessica demands cash. Jonah says no. So Jessica and Mandy disappear, with help from marital-rape-victim-turned-fanatical-activist Zolanda Suade. Suade's group, Vanishing Victims, specializes in thwarting courts and bashing rich males. Madriani tries to reason with Suade, who almost pulls a gun on him, then taunts him with a press release: Suade's going public with Jessica's charge that Jonah molested Mandy. Madriani's girlfriend works in Child Protective Services, so he gets a tidbit or two of inside info--the charge is phony, but because CPS can't comment on cases, the smear will suffice to ignite a media firestorm. When Suade turns up dead, media interest does not subside. In court, circumstantial evidence forms a tightening noose around Jonah's neck, and Madriani starts wondering whether Jonah did kill Suade. Also, underworld types who may know Jessica and/or a Mexican drug lord start stalking Madriani, and more corpses pop up. Martini, who covered the Manson trial, then became a lawyer and a bestselling novelist, is great at realistic, ingenious courtroom suspense, media-circus scenes, and dramatizing the impact of office politics on legal proceedings. His characters and prose are workmanlike but sturdy. Always grouped with lawyers-turned-writers Scott Turow and John Grisham, Martini thinks Turow's a better writer (in terms of character and dialogue), and Grisham's a natural-born storyteller who towers over all, but that he, Martini, is a better storyteller than Turow and a better writer than Grisham. The Attorney is evidence that he may be right. --Tim Appelo

wonderful legal thriller:
I hadn't read many of his books and was really pleased when I read this one. Mandriani is an attorney and one of his clients, who he had defended before with good results, comes to him again. Jonah Hale, who has since won one of the biggest lotteries, wants Mandriani to find his grand-daughter who has been kidnapped by his daughter, a drug user and released felon. The woman who he feels helped his daughter with the kidnapping ends up murdered and he is accused of the murder. Mandriani has his hands full trying to keep up with all the different angles and suspects. The ending may surprise you. I enjoyed the book and I think you will too. I am looking forward to reading another of his books.

slow to get going, long wait til surprise ending; fair drama:
This is our third Martini -- er, the author's books that is. We enjoyed "Simeon Chamber" (his first outing), but felt the "List" was too dry and set too sluggish a pace for our taste. We tried the "Attorney" to see if the defense attorney Paul Madriani series, which now has some half dozen entries, might be more entertaining. Alas, a rather mundane plot gets us off to a lackluster start -- Jonah Hale's granddaughter Amanda, of whom he has legal custody, is kidnapped by her recent ex-con natural mother, with the help of a feminist activist, Zolanda Suade, who specializes in skirting the law and resisting the Establishment. Hale hires Madriani (instead of an private eye?), but little more happens until some 100 pages later, when Suade is discovered murdered. Hale is arrested on a fairly extensive list of evidence that points to him, coupled with his incentive, motive, and opportunity. At that point, Paul switches into the true mode of defending his client, with some helpers (and some inside scoop from his lady friend, director of Child Protective Services). Some reasonably interesting courtroom scenes follow as first the accused is arraigned without bail and then actually tried for the murder. Near the end, in what we thought was a somewhat unfair plot development, Hale suffers a heart attack, suspending the trial. While he's hospitalized, a new Mexican drug-runner-type villain surfaces, who has been hunted half-heartedly through the book, and sheds enough doubt on the case that for all practical purposes the prosecution is motivated to declare a mistrial and not bother with a second go-round. A twist at the end tells us readers who the perp actually was. This novel is sort of like a car running a 300-mile car race in first gear for 100 miles, second gear for 280 miles, and then a mad dash to the finish line without realizing one is 50 laps behind -- hardly a compelling run. Such is the nature of this book; while Madriani is a nice enough guy, the plot lacked zest and suspense, nor could the court scenes seize the moment "Perry Mason"-style. In fact, we're thinking maybe a third martini cocktail might be more fun!

Page-turner and Peeker-friendly:
Steve Martini's novel usually not at the top at the bestseller's list but he has his own charm that knock John Grisham's witty bestsellers down. Martini is somehow lacking good sense of humor thus his novels are only suitable to those really into courtroom thriller. And to others, stick with Grisham's highly commerciallized and a little not realistic novels. This wuddunnit is amazingly written and stunning ending.The novelist succeeded to confuse readers from the beginning and pushing more and more to blame the likeliest suspect until the very end he turn it completely different (not opposite). While the conclusion is really suprisingly great, it's also simple and peeker-friendly. To enjoy this book please do not peek the last few pages!

Nice Entry:
The author is a careful storyteller, and this one will hold the interest of most readers. This story involves the hero-attorney getting involved in what looks like a child-custody case, but which quickly escalates into a kidnapping by a zealot who is more interested in self-aggrandisement than helping either women or children. But the mother of the kidnapped child is a drug addict, with connections--in more than one way--to a Mexican drug lord, who also runs with thieves and burglars, so the attorney, and the child's grandparents, mount a full-blown search. Unhappily, the zealot gets killed, and the missing child's grandfather is charged and put on trial, so the attorney has to go to work in the field he knows best, a criminal trial. The concept is very interesting, and one played out rather occasionally in real life, so it's conclusion is wanted by every reader. There are a couple of nice twists to its conclusion, as the attorney, his pragmatic partner, and his love interest encounter multiple obstacles, both in court and on the street. A shoot-out, in the midst of an ether fire, in a Mexican bar bring a lot of danger, along with a few answers. Unhappily, the book bogs down significantly in the middle with chapters that read like a trial transcript. The concept may sound interesting to someone who has never struggled with an actual trial transcript, but, in fact, such transcripts, of even the most interesting trial, are filled with numbing detail and repetition, and the author sticks too closely to the genuine article. It doesn't make for very interesting reading, and the progress of the story really slows down in those parts. But it is an interesting story with a nice, thought-provoking conclusion.

Another excellent trial drama:
Steve Martini hits one out of the park with this excellent and gripping story of an attorney's quest to find and return his client's granddaughter from her drug addicted mother to the legal custody of the maternal grandparents. In doing so he suddenly finds himself having to defend the grandfather of murder charges involving the homicide of a woman who assisted the mother in removing the child from the home of her grandparents. The ending has a twist that is totally unexpected and unforeseen.