Michael C. Eberhardt

I tend to like legal thrillers more than other types of thrillers. This one, not so much.

Public defender Hunter Dobbs is faced with a "witness" who is happy to testify falsely to help keep Dobbs' client from being convicted. Dobbs soon figures out that the guy is lying and says no thanks.

The thanks he gets for this action is an accusation that he tried to force the witness to lie on the stand.

Meanwhile, Dobbs lands another case, thanks to the daughter of a judge who had caused Dobbs no end of trouble before the judge retired. A friend of the judge is accused of kidnapping a boy. The friend and the judge were both in the military years ago, and the friend has since become a drifter. He was staying on the judge's farm, helping out, when accused.

Dobbs is faced with having to defend himself in a peculiar sort of proceeding. He is prevented by client-lawyer ethics to reveal what actually happened between him and the witness. So he has to look elsewhere for corroboration of his innocence. As for the kidnapping case, there are rumors that the judge himself might be involved. What's true here and what's not?

Some interesting legal issues but not enough. The writer is also not as skillful as I would have liked. He creates a character, Dobbs, who is not all that likable, who flies off the handle rather too easily (and probably too easily for any court to accept in real life), who has a two-dimensional view of women (not uncommon among these legal thriller writers, unfortunately), and just isn't that interesting. I'd set it somewhere below Grisham, maybe a grade or so.… (mere)

Attorney Hunter Dobbs is in deep trouble. He's representing a low life who cons another prisoner into providing him with a false alibi. When Hunter refuses to put the liar on the stand, his client tells the judge that Hunter was the one who tried to get the guy to lie. He's suspended from his public defender job and, to fill the time, works with his own attorney on her first murder case. These two cases weave interestingly through this story. I'd never read any of Eberhardt before but after finishing this one, went out and got his two former books. I love finding a new author!… (mere)