Undue Influence (Paperback)

We don't want to reveal too much plot, but in short, Madriani is defending his sister-in-law Laurel on the charge of murdering her ex-husband's trophy wife. A custody battle for her two kids is an apparent motive, and the evidence all seems to look bad, including secrets Laurel won't even reveal to her defense team. Suspense builds as we join the courtroom audience for an entertaining fight with a female prosecutor with a chip on her shoulder, not to mention the main cop (Lama) who is a Madriani enemy. Things don't get sorted out until quite late in the book, yet we're on edge til nearly the very last page as twists and turns in the story line have us hustling through the pages at breakneck speed. A most unusual ending is our final reward!

This book is as good as Scott Turow or John Grisham at their best. While we're still not totally Madriani fan club enthusiasts, this is surely one of the best books we've read in a long time -- and thus very highly recommended!

The story keeps you turning pages as Madriani's case bounds and rebounds from bad to worse, then from better to awful, as a result of clever legal maneuvering and unfortunate surprises. The courtroom drama is plentiful, interesting and evidently realistic; Steve Martini has a law degree and practiced as a trial lawyer.

Martini's writing style irritated me at times. On a few occasions, I had to stop to figure out to whom a pronoun referred to. During the legal proceedings, he often interrupts the dialogue to interpret what is said, as if only a lawyer could grasp the significance. A couple of times he abruptly jumped the scene, making me wonder if the typesetter might have left out a paragraph or two. He reminds you of earlier events that he develops later in the story, however. This helps busy people reading the book over several weeks.

The plot has some neat twists and surprises, yet the events and characters are believable, up to the point where the story should have ended. In the final two chapters, Martini appends an ending after the ending that I guess was supposed to be the final ironic twist. It didn't work for me. After enjoying a fast and suspenseful ride through an interesting and credible plot, I felt as if someone dinged the fender on my brand new car. Before reading Undue Influence, I suggest you tear out pages 439-457 (paperback version), seal them in an envelope, stick them in the freezer, and thaw them out next Christmas.