A year after he's fired from the California law firm of Potter,
Skarpellos by Ben Potter, who's found out he's having an affair
with Ben's wife Talia, corporate-turned-criminal lawyer Paul
Madriani is asked to join Talia's defense - on a charge of
murdering Ben on the eve of his nomination to the Supreme Court.
It's the other partner, Tony ("the Greek") Skarpellos, who
inveigles Madriani to put aside two other investigations - helping
county medical examiner George Cooper figure out who abandoned his
daughter to burn to death after a car crash, and defending
high-profile hooker Susan Hawley, who doesn't want to implicate her
well-placed clients in "boinkgate" even if she's granted immunity -
and to sign on as assisting counsel to nitwit glamourpuss Gibert
Cheetam, who promptly runs Talia's defense into the ground and
jumps ship after the grand jury indicts her. So Madriani, his
affair with Talia making him painfully vulnerable, takes over as
chief counsel, infuriating his estranged wife Nikki even before he
realizes that Skarpellos, who stands to inherit the hugely
profitable firm if Talia takes the rap, has set him up. Martini
(The Simeon Chamber, 1988), whose early scenes could have used some
advice from assisting counsel too (the obligatory
between-the-sheets flashback is introduced by noting "the cold
wetness of my own passions, a small portion of which had pooled in
the creases of the sheets beneath where her loins had rested"),
rouses himself for the well-paced trial scenes, which heat up even
further when news of the Talia/Madriani affair reaches the ears of
the presiding judge, determined that no mistrial's going to stand
in the way of his reelection - and when Madriani decides to pin his
hopes on an all-out assault on Skarpellos. The final surprise,
though, is eminently guessable. Martini is no Scott Turow - his
characters are thinner, his prose flabbier - but his legal intrigue
will probably keep you up just as late. (Kirkus Reviews)
Paul Madriani, a brilliant criminal defense lawyer, had a
once-promising career with a prestigious law-firm, until an
ill-judged affair with the senior partner Ben Potter's wife led to
his resignation. Now he scrambles for work amid the ghosts of his
doomed affair and the remains of a failing marriage. Then Potter is
found dead, an apparent suicide. But as details come to light, the
case turns from suicide to murder and the needle of suspicion
points towards the victim's seductive wife, Talia Potter. Indicted
and arrested, Talia turns to Paul, her former lover, to defend her
against the mounting evidence in a case that for her could result
in the gas chamber
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