From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Thomas Dennehy, assistant DA of Davidson County, Tenn., is about to become famous. Unless he can figure a way out of it, he'll be certified as the first lawyer in the country to have sent the wrong man to the death chamber. As if that isn't enough, he must also prosecute a charismatic member of the local Sudanese community, Moses Bol, accused of killing a prostitute, in a trial that threatens to engulf Nashville in a full-scale race riot. Dennehy is tough, in court and out, and has plenty of interesting personal problems—primarily an ex-wife for whom he has conflicting feelings and an 11-year-old daughter he adores. He's a highly sympathetic figure, as are Arvin's other characters—except the bad guy who's harboring a deadly grudge and a diabolical plan that confounds both Dennehy and the police. While trying to sort through his problems, Dennehy falls for an unlikely lady, Fiona Towns, a local minister and Moses Bol's alibi. Perhaps this material isn't quite as original as Arvin's debut,
The Last Goodbye, but the author is among the top handful of legal thriller writers working today, and this is another winner that thriller, mystery and general fiction readers alike will relish.
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Nashville prosecutor Tom Dennehy is legendary for convicting two unrelated men of the same crime. Wilson Owens just received a lethal injection for a convenience-store murder. David Bridges was an EMT called to the scene of the crime, who--under the influence of drugs--botched a procedure that may have saved Owens' victim. Bridges got seven years for negligent homicide. Now, as Dennehy builds a murder case against a Sudanese refugee, the Owens case resurfaces when a lifer in the pen claims to have committed the shooting for which Owens was executed. Meanwhile, Dennehy's best friend and coworker is murdered in a manner similar to the recent killing of a parole officer, one of whose clients was none other than the recently released EMT, David Bridges, who has subsequently vanished. Coincidence, or is someone after Dennehy? Complicating matters further, Dennehy has become romantically involved with a female minister who is a personal advocate for the young Sudanese man charged with murder. Dennehy has always stood arrogantly on the higher moral ground, but now he is being force-fed a huge piece of bloody humble pie. This nail-biter is Arvin's third thriller--following
The Will (2000) and
The Last Goodbye (2004)--and each has been better than the last. He matches sinister plots with flawed protagonists to create melancholy, suspenseful, epiphany-filled, and pain-drenched noir novels.
Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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