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UNDUE INFLUENCE By Steve Martini (Paul Madriani Novels Book 3)
MY REVIEW THREE STARS***
I just finished reading Martini's third novel featuring lawyer Paul Madriani, published in 1994. In this installment of the series a widowed Paul comes to the aid of his sister-in-law Laurel who is charged with first degree murder and faces the death penalty if convicted. He is thus again cast in the role of an honest and earnest criminal defense attorney fighting for the freedom, and in fact the very life, of an innocent woman. This was the premise of his runaway best-selling debut legal thriller COMPELLING EVIDENCE, but this is where the similarities end.
It occurred to me that the circumstances of this case, at least superficially, reminded me a lot of the Betty Broderick story. Politician Jack dumps his wife and the mother of his children for a twenty-something blond bimbo young enough to be his daughter. The pair then conspire to take custody of the children away from Laurel. It is against the backdrop of a vicious custody battle in family court that Jack comes home to find his young bride of some five months stone cold dead with a bullet in her head. Paul's new client, his deceased wife's younger sister, is unable to be located after the shooting death of her former husband's new wife. She is subsequently picked up by the authorities in Reno, Nevada. Paul, perhaps not surprisingly, is unable to arrange for bail in light of Laurel posing a potential flight risk. She is confined to a jail cell pending trial.
Paul sees a beautiful and vaguely familiar female face in the crowd mulling around the police tape on the night of the killing, Federal Prosecutor Dana Colby, a year behind him in law school in the past and a prominent figure in judicial circles in the present. Paul also bumps into Jack and murder victim Melanie's next door neighbors George and Kathy Merlow. Ostensibly much like delicious Dana the couple were just out killing time rubbernecking in the crowd gathered outside the murder house.
Paul and Harry rather quickly determine that the Merlow house next door provided a birds eye view into the Vega's home and more incredibly still, a direct and unobstructed line of sight into the cordoned-off bathroom (precise location where Melanie Vega was killed). But alas! The house is vacant and cleared out when Paul comes calling to ask questions the very next day.
The first half of the book is then consumed by Paul flexing his muscles as an investigator along a mysterious and dangerous journey searching for the "missing Merlows". This is of course amidst chasing down other somewhat more promising leads like Jack's problems with the Feds and Paul's growing suspicion that Jack orchestrated the killing. Romance is likewise in the air with the gorgeous violet-eyed, auburn-haired Federal Prosecutor named Dana.
I was growing increasingly impatient with Paul's role as a dashing PI and his romantic interludes with the movie star beautiful oh so stunning Dana, and that is especially including the melodrama and danger that Paul encounters in the first half of the novel, including a bomb explosion in the post office and almost getting assassinated by a professional hit man. There was this kind of action infused into the final pages of the second book (PRIME WITNESS) but Paul dodging bullets and defying death did not consume over half of the book like in this case.
The reader is halfway into the book before the story shifts into high gear with its gripping courtroom drama where "Nobody does it better" than Martini. The author does his usual outstanding job of fleshing out the characters that populate the legal showdown, including the judge, the prosecutor, and the witnesses that are called to testify. The legal battle is absolutely riveting and the unfolding story becomes "unputdownable". It is in this arena that Martini absolutely shines. I loved this portion of the novel from its outset to the final verdict in the case.
There is some additional action-adventure, bullets flying, and outrunning a seasoned hit man in the grand finale, in addition to a final plot twist that is designed to leave the read with his jaw open and in awe.
That said (and I tried to avoid the necessity of a "spoiler alert") I was disappointed in this book. The "mystery of the Merlows" was easy for me to figure out. The underlying reason for their abrupt departure and disappearance was suggested at the time of Paul's initial search for them, but essentially confirmed during his conversation with Marcie at the Post Office. Worse than that, I was able to figure out the essence of the ending long before "the big reveal". It may have helped in that I have a medical background but I had my suspicions well before the medical examiner's testimony during the trial. The science simply clinched it.
This is the third in this book series with Madriani and Martini's incredible ability to spin a spell-binding yarn within the confines of a courtroom is unrivalled in my opinion. He is able to keep a reader absolutely riveted and ratchet up the suspense like a master story teller. That said, I don't want to see Paul Madriani taken out of his element and gradually morph into Magnum PI or James Bond. UNDUE INFLUENCE continues the trend that Martini started in PRIME WITNESS. I am crossing my fingers that it doesn't continue, especially since I have purchased the movie adaptation of this book, and already bought THE JUDGE (plus its movie adaptation!).
MY REVIEW THREE STARS***
I just finished reading Martini's third novel featuring lawyer Paul Madriani, published in 1994. In this installment of the series a widowed Paul comes to the aid of his sister-in-law Laurel who is charged with first degree murder and faces the death penalty if convicted. He is thus again cast in the role of an honest and earnest criminal defense attorney fighting for the freedom, and in fact the very life, of an innocent woman. This was the premise of his runaway best-selling debut legal thriller COMPELLING EVIDENCE, but this is where the similarities end.
It occurred to me that the circumstances of this case, at least superficially, reminded me a lot of the Betty Broderick story. Politician Jack dumps his wife and the mother of his children for a twenty-something blond bimbo young enough to be his daughter. The pair then conspire to take custody of the children away from Laurel. It is against the backdrop of a vicious custody battle in family court that Jack comes home to find his young bride of some five months stone cold dead with a bullet in her head. Paul's new client, his deceased wife's younger sister, is unable to be located after the shooting death of her former husband's new wife. She is subsequently picked up by the authorities in Reno, Nevada. Paul, perhaps not surprisingly, is unable to arrange for bail in light of Laurel posing a potential flight risk. She is confined to a jail cell pending trial.
Paul sees a beautiful and vaguely familiar female face in the crowd mulling around the police tape on the night of the killing, Federal Prosecutor Dana Colby, a year behind him in law school in the past and a prominent figure in judicial circles in the present. Paul also bumps into Jack and murder victim Melanie's next door neighbors George and Kathy Merlow. Ostensibly much like delicious Dana the couple were just out killing time rubbernecking in the crowd gathered outside the murder house.
Paul and Harry rather quickly determine that the Merlow house next door provided a birds eye view into the Vega's home and more incredibly still, a direct and unobstructed line of sight into the cordoned-off bathroom (precise location where Melanie Vega was killed). But alas! The house is vacant and cleared out when Paul comes calling to ask questions the very next day.
The first half of the book is then consumed by Paul flexing his muscles as an investigator along a mysterious and dangerous journey searching for the "missing Merlows". This is of course amidst chasing down other somewhat more promising leads like Jack's problems with the Feds and Paul's growing suspicion that Jack orchestrated the killing. Romance is likewise in the air with the gorgeous violet-eyed, auburn-haired Federal Prosecutor named Dana.
I was growing increasingly impatient with Paul's role as a dashing PI and his romantic interludes with the movie star beautiful oh so stunning Dana, and that is especially including the melodrama and danger that Paul encounters in the first half of the novel, including a bomb explosion in the post office and almost getting assassinated by a professional hit man. There was this kind of action infused into the final pages of the second book (PRIME WITNESS) but Paul dodging bullets and defying death did not consume over half of the book like in this case.
The reader is halfway into the book before the story shifts into high gear with its gripping courtroom drama where "Nobody does it better" than Martini. The author does his usual outstanding job of fleshing out the characters that populate the legal showdown, including the judge, the prosecutor, and the witnesses that are called to testify. The legal battle is absolutely riveting and the unfolding story becomes "unputdownable". It is in this arena that Martini absolutely shines. I loved this portion of the novel from its outset to the final verdict in the case.
There is some additional action-adventure, bullets flying, and outrunning a seasoned hit man in the grand finale, in addition to a final plot twist that is designed to leave the read with his jaw open and in awe.
That said (and I tried to avoid the necessity of a "spoiler alert") I was disappointed in this book. The "mystery of the Merlows" was easy for me to figure out. The underlying reason for their abrupt departure and disappearance was suggested at the time of Paul's initial search for them, but essentially confirmed during his conversation with Marcie at the Post Office. Worse than that, I was able to figure out the essence of the ending long before "the big reveal". It may have helped in that I have a medical background but I had my suspicions well before the medical examiner's testimony during the trial. The science simply clinched it.
This is the third in this book series with Madriani and Martini's incredible ability to spin a spell-binding yarn within the confines of a courtroom is unrivalled in my opinion. He is able to keep a reader absolutely riveted and ratchet up the suspense like a master story teller. That said, I don't want to see Paul Madriani taken out of his element and gradually morph into Magnum PI or James Bond. UNDUE INFLUENCE continues the trend that Martini started in PRIME WITNESS. I am crossing my fingers that it doesn't continue, especially since I have purchased the movie adaptation of this book, and already bought THE JUDGE (plus its movie adaptation!).
