Four stars is generous. This is a book with a first half and a second half. First half is setup, too long and drawn out. Second half much more interesting and much better, but you had to slug through the first half to get there.

Good read

This is the 8th in the Paul Madriani series. He's an attorney. I listened to the audiobook & rate this one as 2.5. Paul Madriani is defending a career soldier accused of murdering a woman who is a software tycoon.

When a CEO of a large corporation is killed, an ex army person is arrested for the crime. He was providing security for her and her company, along with other things. The DA is in for a win and Paul, along with his team must try to decide how to defend the man. The Government is involved, because of the business with the corporation. The courtroom dialogue gets a little long, but the story is good and the ending will be a surprise.

I really like Steve Martini's books, and especially the Paul Madriani series, and this one was no exception. Besides being a first rate legal thriller, it also raises the questions of treating PTSD patients and the government and big business becoming in effect Big Brother, knowing everything about all of the citizens through internet technology -- gives everybody something to think about.

Good trial scenes

Loved the trial scenes. Never an idea about the identity of the actual murderer until Paul madriani figures it out.

I love Steve Martini's books. I can never figure out the twist ahead of time.

Government misuse of information

Exciting and scary look at how the wrong people can invade the private lives of anyone using a computer for personal business to gather information. Big brother at its absolute worst!

Computer CEO murdered

It is obvious that while reading thrillers there will be unusual plot twist; keeping that in my mind i started the book. I was on tips of my toes being careful but still the plot twist caught me off guard. Definitely worth the read and i enjoyed it to the bits. The book though containing different terminologies and jargon, is perfectly understandable and written in a manner sophisticated but simplified to understand. If you love thrillers, you would love this; kind of reminded me of Dan Brown.

It's not a "legal thriller", it's a "legal procedural"!

Despite being firmly slotted into the legal thriller genre, Steve Martini's novel Double Tap is most unequivocally not a thriller. And while that may sound like bad news for potential readers and existing Steve Martini fans, that statement is most unequivocally not a condemnation or criticism of what is an exceptionally interesting novel.

The story is simple. Madelyn Chapman is a powerful, wealthy, beautiful, and extremely self-indulgent business woman - the CEO of a high-tech software firm whose main customer is the US government. She has been found in her home murdered with two very tightly grouped gunshot wounds to the head. This particular style of murder is called a "double tap" in the trade and is typically the signature of a professional assassin who, by the bye, is also a superb marksman.

The case against Emiliano Ruiz, a career soldier, is rock solid and defense attorney Paul Madriani is worried about his inability to explain certain obvious gaps in his client's military résumé that Ruiz steadfastly refuses to clarify. In the face of almost overwhelming evidence against his client, Madriani doggedly investigates the case and begins to bump into dangerous secrets that the government, the military and the new CEO of Chapman's firm would prefer stay under the darkest and deepest cover.

In the same manner as a police procedural is not a suspense thriller, Double Tap is not a legal thriller. It's definitely a legal procedural with an almost encyclopedic wealth of fascinating minutiae on the details of a trial for capital murder - the pre-trial investigations that would be undertaken by a defense attorney; motions and counter motions; side bars; forensic examination of evidence; objections sustained and over-ruled; side bars; characterization and selection of "expert" witnesses; potential grounds for appeal and mistrial; jury selection; discovery; arraignment; witness lists; required disclosure of evidence; media coverage; and much, much more.

Steve Martini's description of Emiliano Ruiz's trial for murder was compelling and utterly absorbing - the proverbial page turner, to be sure - but, sadly, the ending when it came was almost anti-climactic. In all fairness, the clues were all there and the characters had definitely been introduced in the course of the novel. To call the ending "deus ex machina" would be quite incorrect. But, in comparison with the body of the novel, it arrived with a bit of a thud and was definitely a let down.

One star reduction from what would otherwise have been a five star barn burner. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

Another great read in this series. Even though I suspected the character that ended up being the murder had some involvement, the connection was casual enough that I didn't suspect them to be the murder until it was disclosed near the end of the book. Definitely recommend this book.