Legal Thrillers

[pluckyduck]

My hunt for a new Anne Tyler worked out so nicely, (thanks y'all!!), I thought what the heck, let's go shopping for some good legal authors.

I love a good courtroom drama/legal thriller kind of book. They are my "mind candy". I usually can't stand substandard writing, but I put up with it in Grisham when he's on his game because the plots are so good. Lately he's left me high and dry but I keep going back, trying to replicate my experience with The Firm and The Client.... of course, I've had to suffer through The Brethren and that ilk ((gagging sound)). "Hmmm, now that I'm a highly paid author who makes a gazzillion dollars on movie rights, I'll just take a half formed plot and throw it in a book. People will buy it anyway, and somebody should be able to come along and rewrite it halfway decently for the screen so the same people then flock to the movie theaters." Grrr.

But I digress.

Best legal book I ever read was Scott Turow, Presumed Innocent. Worst legal book I ever read was the one he wrote after that (name escapes me), where he spent 400 or so pages taking me through a million red herrings only to have the plot resolve the way it was set up to resolve in the very first chapter. While that may be reality in the legal world, it's not the thrill ride I'm looking for in a mind candy book.

So, who's good? Whom do you guys like? The more courtroom action the better, for my tastes.

Andrea

[dandj]

I loved the book Dead Even (shows up on EP database as Deadlock, I think) by Brad Meltzer! It's about a husband (defense attorney) and wife (prosecuting attorney) who have been forced into handling the same case. She's about to lose her job, so there's no way she's backing out. He's being threatened if he drops it. The problem is.......they have each been told that if they don't win the case, their spouse will die! The character of the wife is great.....she's full of spunk and wit....very fun.

There's not a whole lot of actual courtroom action, but it is a great book. He's also written The Tenth Justice, but I haven't yet read that one.

I also like Tami Hoag who wrote Guilty as Sin (made into a movie starring Don Johnson and Rebecca DeMornay) and A Thin Dark Line.

Danielle

[frazzledspice]

Lisa Scottoline, a Philadelphia attorney turned writer, has done a series on Benedetta Rosato, partner in a nine-woman Philadelphia law firm, who has been both attorney and defendent, depending on which book you read.

I've read "Legal Tender" and "Moment of Truth." "Final Appeal" won the Edgar.

I will probably look for that in the library next, along with her latest, "The Vendetta Defense."