From Amazon.com
Is there room in the overcrowded arena of the legal thriller for yet another major player? If that new arrival happens to be blessed with the real-life experience of San Francisco trial lawyer John Martel, the answer is a heartfelt yes. Martel advised the Los Angeles District Attorney's office on the Menendez Brothers retrial and the O.J. Simpson case (proving even a pro can't win them all). He has been called one of the top 10 trial lawyers in America by the
National Law Journal. Best of all, he can write compelling scenes that take place both in and out of court, and can create characters who rise above their genre origins to become real people.
Elliot Ashford, a millionaire congressman, is forced to resign because of a sex scandal. When he's charged with the brutal murder of his wife, Lara, assistant district attorney Grace Harris seems to have everything she needs to make a strong case for the prosecution. She also has ambitions that could propel her career up several notches.
Then some key DNA evidence mysteriously disappears, and Grace's chief adversary--a former defense superstar named Barrett Dickson--appears ready for a comeback. But neither side is prepared for the barrage of political infighting, dirty tricks, and mysterious malevolence from inside the jury room. Three more murders and two trials later, you'll emerge from The Alternate with strong doubts about the legal system--but a feeling of certainty that John Martel has a future as a novelist. --Dick Adler
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From Publishers Weekly
Repeated references to the O.J. Simpson trial notwithstanding, Martel's latest legal thriller (after Partners) is an old-school melodrama. When a former beauty queen is stabbed to death with a shard of her own bathroom mirror, police rush to arrest husband Elliot Ashford, a wealthy, former right-wing congressman with suspected ties to the Mafia. Everyone assumes Ashford is "dead-bang guilty"Aincluding D.A. Earl Field, a politically ambitious African-American with mob connections of his own; his beautiful assistant, Grace Harris; even Ashford's own lawyer, "Bear" Dickson, a "hard-luck, hard-drinking" corporate attorney hired by the defense mainly for his friendship with the presiding judge. Predictably, defending the despicable Ashford gets Dickson's professional juices flowing again, and he even begins to entertain unprofessional fantasies about Assistant D.A. Harris. But the courses of justice and true love hit a snag when down-and-out Amanda Keller arrives as an alternate on the Ashford jury. A former child beauty-pageant queen and now a psychologically unstable soap opera actress between jobs, Keller is determined to grab the headlines, even by the most desperate measures. The plot twists strenuously as the characters cross and double-cross each other, spitting out venomous one-liners ("Isn't it a tight squeeze getting a cloven foot into those Ferragamos, Elliot?") and self-righteous tirades about forensic and criminal ethics. Martel aims for psychological thrills and contemporary cool, mixing post-O.J. cynicism with potboiler morality. But his overlong yarn is replete with such stale characterization and predictable plot machinations that few will be surprised when the author tacks on a hackneyed deus ex machina happy ending. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selection.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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