From Amazon.com
A beautifully crafted sense of place surrounds prizewinning journalist and nonfiction writer Barry Siegel's debut thriller in a cocoon of credibility, adding weight to a strong story. "If he closed his eyes, Jimmy almost could imagine himself back in the La Graciosa of old," Siegel writes about the fictional town on the central California coast. "Gone now was the cigar factory, the big wholesale meat market, the dairy, the Greyhound bus station... Henry's Hardware, where you could buy everything from kerosene lamps to washboards, was now an empty lot. The meat market was a dress store, the creamery a complex of sushi, cappuccino and moccasin shops. La Graciosa hadn't turned precious yet, but it was fighting the battle." In an area where the most important industry is no longer agriculture but nuclear energy, the town's own power structure has shifted. At its center is a dangerously ambitious district attorney, Dennis Taylor, who will do anything to win. Lawyer Greg Monarch, carving out a quiet living doing estates and wills, has worked for and against Taylor in the past, and has been badly burned on both sides. Now Taylor is about to nail Monarch's best friend and former law partner for murder, and Monarch has only a few faded defensive skills to fight what appears to be another losing battle. But as sharp and surprising as the book's resolution is, it's the image of the fading, changing town of La Graciosa that will stay in your memory.
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From Library Journal
Greg Monarch's quiet life as a small-town lawyer is shattered when he is asked to defend his former partner, Ira Sullivan, on a murder charge. Unable to turn his back on an old friend, Greg reluctantly agrees to handle the case. However, he soon finds himself involved in both an ever-widening conspiracy and a moral dilemma. As Greg uncovers a complex web of government corruption and deceit, he is faced with the necessity of bending his own ethical standards and manipulating the star witness, a pathological liar, in order to free Ira. Siegel, author of the nonfiction A Death in White Bear Lake (LJ 6/15/90), offers a rather cynical but realistic view of the machinations behind the legal system combined with a collection of eccentric characters. The result is an intriguing blend of mystery, suspense, and courtroom drama that should appeal to readers of those genres. Recommended for most popular fiction collections.?Barbara E. Kemp, SUNY at Albany Libs.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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