|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
We've all heard of an "open and shut" case. That's when the evidence is so incontrovertible that the accused is convicted without a moment's hesitation on the part of the judicial system. But what if the "open and shut" case has a crack in it? Is it possible that a person could somehow be wrongly convicted even in the face of overwhelming evidence against them? That's the situation that attorney Andy Carpenter faces. His father, a well-respected former district attorney, asks him to handle the appeals case of Willie Miller, who¹s been in prison for 7 years and is awaiting execution for the brutal murder a young woman reporter. Nelson Carpenter had been the prosecuting attorney in the previous case, so it seems strange that he should ask Andy to now defend Miller. Andy doesn't really get to find out why because his father dies a few days after making the request. It's then that Andy finds he is a very, very rich man. He¹s inherited 22 million dollars that he never knew his father had. It turns out that there was a deposit of 2 million dollars many years earlier that Nelson never once touched, and it has grown to the fortune that Andy inherits. Just another mystery for Andy about a man whom he thought he knew intimately. The mystery deepens when Andy finds a photograph from many years earlier with a group of men including his father. He feels that it has something to do with the money and maybe even to do with the Miller case, but it's really an enigma that eludes him for most of the book. Andy is a great character. He is sarcastic, irreverent and a wise guy‹and an unexpectedly excellent attorney. The strategies he uses in the courtroom are brilliant. You know that "incontrovertible evidence"? Well, suddenly it's becoming questionable, there's doubt about little things that others have just taken for granted. It's so believably presented, with such élan, that the reader is high fiving every interview that Andy conducts with the various witnesses. I loved this book. At first, I was hooked by the humor. I was genuinely chuckling about every 32 seconds during my reading. Not at anything silly, but just at Andy's way of looking at things. For example, he is attacked by a guy with a ski mask and thinks "Since it hasn't snowed in the office in quite a while, I instinctively cover up." Just sort of an unexpected take on things. And then the pivotal appeals trial begins. During that time, I marveled at Andy's way of looking at things, of questioning things that didn't seem to have any question around them. It was interesting to see the reasoning for why he did various things in the courtroom. Rosenfelt did a very suspenseful job of building to the jury coming back with the verdict. The reader definitely wasn't sure which way it would go. And he also did something unique in presenting the opposing attorney as a very honorable man who put justice before his own ego. There are a few first-author blips along the way, a few points that seem to be a bit of a stretch, but nothing that diminishes the overall enjoyment of the book. For me, Rosenfelt has created an open and shut book - once you open it, you won't want to shut it until the final word and the final sentence. Wonderful stuff!
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, November 2002
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
