Every Bit as Good as Grisham

A Case of Redemption by Adam Mitzner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurbs on the back of this book and in the synopsis in the giveaway and in the cover letter that arrived with the book when I won it all compare it to Grisham. I sort of took that with a grain of salt--a bit of hyperbolic come on --but in actuality, several times during my reading, I thought I was reading a Grisham. That is not a bad thing, since, like many others, I'm a big Grisham fan. So, if you are, too, you will like this book.

The hero is in pain and drinking heavily. He lost his wife and child in a drunk driver accident and so he's resigned his high profile partnership in a high octane law firm and is basically drowning his sorrows. Check!

A gruesome murder is committed--a lovely pop star is beaten to death with a missing blunt instrument, probably the missing baseball bat that hung on her bedroom wall. She once sang the National Anthem at some big sports event--World Series maybe--and it was a gift. Hate to say Cameron Diaz and A-Rod come to mind but then that might be because the accused is a rap star who wrote and sang a song about A-Rod beating an unnamed someone to death with a baseball bat. So, big murder, noted person accused and very evident convincing evidence against him. Check!

Someone decides the only attorney able to turn the tables is a guy who had similar success in another big name trial. Check!

The someone is a beautiful, idealistic, young attorney who hasn't the chops to do it herself. Check! This time the hero isn't the young, idealistic attorney with the big guys lined up against him BUT, in time, the big guns from his old law firm will be lined up against him when the two try to pin the murder on somebody else. So the pattern continues.

All the pieces are in place, a la Grisham and so begins the search for the truth. In this instance the biggest obstacle to the truth appears to be the accused who never seems to tell it. This makes for some embarrassing moments for our side and some frustration when threads apparently leading to his exoneration only to fall flat as a result of sins of omission.

Secondary characters are definitely interesting and the revelations about them and their connection to the defendant, the victim and the eventually revealed murderer are all engrossing. Full of surprises and red herrings, the crime is solved, sort of, all the guilty get their comeuppance in one way or another and our hero rides away in the sunset, a bit less pained and certainly less wrapped around a bottle. He's grown and healed some and, maybe, we might see him again. One can only hope so.

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