Goodreads | Eric_W Welch (Forreston, IL)'s review of The Swindlers

It begins with an innocent enough conversation. Arthur Morrison, lawyer extraordinaire, has been invited on a yacht by Nelson St. James and his beautiful wife for the weekend.  A strange thing happens when Danielle, St, James’s wife kisses him and wonders why he doesn’t remember her.  It’s only after a visit with an old friend from college, Terry Larson, an ex-prosecutor in Los Angeles, who had been investigating St. James, that Terry tells him Danielle is actually Janine Llewelyn, the little sister of a girl Morrison had wanted to marry, but who had turned down his proposal (much to her later consternation.)

Terry had left the US Attorney’s office in frustration.  He had been building a case against St. James. He had evidence  that the manipulative billionaire  had swindled many people.  He was sure St. James was soon to be indicted and urged Morrison not to take his case if asked.  Sure enough the indictment is handed up, but St. James disappears on his boat.  Then, several months later the boat arrives in San Francisco.  St. James is dead, murdered by his wife the cops insist, and Danielle wants Morrison to defend her against the murder charge.

The charges are all based on circumstantial evidence. The body had gone overboard, the gun had the prints of both husband and wife, no one saw the killing, and Morrison did a wonderful job of planting all sorts of doubt in the minds of the jurors.  Even the monetary motive disappeared when Morrison got St. James’s attorney to reveal the will had been changed so that if he died his wife would get nothing, whereas if he divorced her, the prenuptial would have left her comfortable indeed.  He rests the defense but then Danielle drops a bombshell.  She has told Morrison over and over that she had indeed killed her husband and now she insists, against his counsel, she wants to testify. “I know what I’m doing,” she says.

Buffa has written a fine tale that draws you in.  Just remember the title is in the plural.



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Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death

Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death:



I find it ironic that many of those in favor of the death penalty don't believe that government ever gets things right.  Yet, here, where a life is involved they are so sure that big government works.



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Two great quotes

"All those of you who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand."

A Hispanic-looking woman in line in a supermarket is talking on her cell to a friend.  The guy behind her complains to her, "Lady, if you want to speak Mexican, go back to Mexico." To which she replied, " I was speaking Navajo, if you want to speak English, go back to England."

FIRM AMBITIONS (Rachel Gold Mystery) by Michael Kahn

Hmmmm.  How to describe the first chapter of this book.  Rachel has moved to St. Louis where she has started a new firm.  Her first client is, well, how shall we put this.  The case involves a will, an irate wife, fellatio, Big Macs with special sauce, Golden Showers, Visa statements, and the threat of photographs. It’s also very funny.

Although she has sworn never to take another divorce case, Rachel is persuaded by Anne, her sister, to help Eileen Landau. As she soon learns, Eileen is having an affair with Andros, a local fitness instructor, otherwise spelled g.i.g.o.l.o. When Andros turns up dead in a hotel room where he and Eileen were having a tryst and Eileen admits she skipped after watching him in the throes of being poisoned, Rachel knows she has a problem, especially since Eileen took along Andros’s briefcase that contained some rather explicit pictures of the two of them.  But it turns out that Rachel’s sister is also in a photo album kept by the dead man and she is charged with his murder.

Rachel’s investigation begins to turn up all sorts of complications.  Good mystery.  Light on the legal side.   Benny continues to amuse and delight. To wit:  (pun intended)

“Probably because normal people believe that a bowel movement is a private act,” I said.

Benny clicked off the flashlight and closed his book. “And sex isn’t?”

“Yeah, but sex sells books.”

“I’m not just talking hot-sex junk fiction,” he said. “I’m talking front page of the New York Times Book Review fiction. I’m talking Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, John Updike, Alice Hoffman. You’ve got people shtupping like crazy in those books. Blow jobs, hand jobs, rim jobs—you name it.”

I shrugged. “Maybe the authors think that a sexual encounter is a way to reveal something about a character’s personality.”

He gave me an astounded look. “And taking a dump isn’t?”

I'm reading the entire series.

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TRIAL - A Legal Thriller by Clifford Irving

I found this book in a list of recommended courtroom dramas.   It's really good.

Warren Blackburn is trying to rehabilitate his law career after signing his name to an affidavit that contains information he knows is false.  He was trying to help someone get a lighter sentence, believing the man's sob story about needing to stay out of jail to help his kids. Turns out it was bullshit. Warren was lucky to get off with a year's suspension and and probation.

Now having to resort to scrounging up whatever cases the judges will throw at him to defend indigent clients, he stumbles on a capital case, which, on the surface appears to be a prosecutorial wet dream and should plead out quickly.  Problem is his client is innocent of the murder of the Vietnamese man who was killed in a fit of road rage.  We're given that up front.  He’s been seen committing the murder.  Of course, we all know about eyewitness testimony: “As for Siva Singh, Warren saw her as a sincere woman who believed in law and order and wanted to help the police. Eyewitnesses were always so sure of what they had seen. Once they had committed themselves to a story, they had a vested interest in keeping to it. Most eyewitnesses don’t have time to tell red from green or short from tall. They make it up later, without realizing it. Everyone seemed to know that except juries.”

And then Warren is offered second chair in a big murder case where the client is most certainly guilty.  Under pressure from the judge to settle this slam-dunk-for-the-prosecution case, Warren is soon faced with having to take over the big case when the lead attorney dies of a stroke.

The case involves the murder of her husband by a rich woman suspected of having been involved in several other murders. She's claiming self-defense, that her husband attacked her with a poker so she had to shoot him. But one evening during a practice session for the trial she reveals her hatred for Asians, and Warren happens to see some peculiar damage on the front of her car. Damage that could possibly link his two cases together and put him in a horribly awkward position.

Books that present characters with a real moral dilemma are always more interesting than those that don't. This book has a doozy.  The outcome is quite satisfactory.

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