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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Legal Thriller With Few Thrills, February 13, 2011
Breach Of Trust" is David Ellis' latest legal thriller and it features Jason Kolarich from "The Hidden Man". Ellis is making a career of writing about and exposing governmental corruption which comes easily from his experiences as a government prosecutor in Chicago. Jason Kolarich is an intriguing character who seems to gain more focus and determination when his family dies in a terrible auto accident. The fact that he was supposed to be driving them at the time but stayed behind to speak to a potential witness, Ernesto Ramirez, who never showed ignites his inner demons and his pursuit of justice, after a period of grief and aimless job shifting. Jason decides to seek the killer(s) of Ernesto, who he subsequently discovered was killed the same night his family died, as a form of guilt relief both for his not being with his family that tragic night and for possibly setting Ernesto up for death by his relentless pursuit of his testimony. Complicating matters is a zealous federal prosecutor with a vendetta against Jason who forces him reluctantly to go undercover seeking damning evidence of political corruption from the Governor and his myriad underlings. Jason is soon playing dual games--find Ernesto's killer and fulfill his responsibilities as chief governmental "snitch". How Jason handles these two overlapping assignments while preserving his true purpose and identity is skillfully handled by Ellis whose plot, while confounding and circuitous at times, is nonetheless satisfying in the end. The reader is exposed to a world of back room political crime and shenanigans filled with wiretaps, kickbacks, payoffs, power for sale, and even murder. Aside from Jason, there were few characters who were particularly likeable nor who elicited my concern for their well being. Pacing was a problem for me as the plot moved along at a numbing pace with little action, violence, or suspense to break the monotony of Jason audio-taping evidence and debriefing with the feds, except for one notable violent interrogation. Certainly "Breach Of Trust" reads as more a satisfying methodical procedural than as a suspenseful legal thriller. For fans of political and govermental corruption novels, "Breach Of Trust" should provide compelling reading. Unfortunately, I never felt the "thriller" part of legal thriller...it was just too slow and methodical for me. There is a mystery (or two) to be solved and there is suspense entwined with Jason's need to protect his identity as a governmental spy; otherwise, I found too little suspense, too little action, and too few thrills.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Never trust a husband too far, nor a bachelor too near." Helen Rowland, March 31, 2011
Jason Kolarich feels lucky to be assigned second chair in defending Senator Hector Almundo from a charge of murder. The case deals with Almundo's alleged deal with the Canniblas street gang. They were shaking down businessmen for contributions to Almundo's election campaign and splitting the proceeds. Almundo is charged with conspiracy and the chief witness against him is his chief of staff, Joey Espinoza. One night, Kolarich is waiting for a call from a confidential informant, Eddie Ramirez. The call is important so Kolarich's wife takes her infant and drives to her parent's home without him. In a double tragedy that changes his life, his wife and child are killed in an auto accident on a slippery road. Later, he learns that the reason why the informant's call didn't arrive is that he was murdered. After a period of mourning, Kolarich returns to work. He's approached by Ramirez's wife, Essie. She wants Kolarich to find out who killed her husband. Since he feels responsible for Ernesto's death and because he also feels he is the cause of his wife and child's deaths, he accepts. He believes that if he can find Ramirez's killer, he would, somehow, make up for his failure. In this psychological novel, we experience the pain and loss that Kolarich feels. Without a proper plan, he attempts to ingratiate himself to the politicians and friends of Almundo. However, his actions are caught by the FBI who are investigating corruption from the governor's office down to the local level. Since Kolarich can't prove that he was innocently pretending to work for these officials, he agrees to go undercover and help the FBI with the case. Kolarich is a heroic character who is just a man, trying to do the right thing. Unlike some of the super heroes of thrillers, he maks mistakes and isn't able to overcome the strength of his foes. But he does have the determination and feeling that he's correcting a wrong and doesn't allow anything to get in his way. This is a well written novel that provides an interesting character portrayal as well as a fine and all too believable thriller.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An absorbing political thriller, February 13, 2011
Jason Kolarich was once an up-and-coming young defense attorney at one of Chicago's highest profile private law firms. Following a case in which his strategy was the key in securing the acquittal of a State Senator from federal murder charges it seemed as if the sky was the limit for his future. Except something went terribly wrong at the end of the trial. While he was in his office late one winter night waiting for a phone call from an informant, Jason's wife, tired of waiting for him to come home as promised, packed their infant daughter in the car and headed out for a planned visit to her parents. They never made it. Their car skidded off the icy road along the way, killing both. Not able to shake the loss - and the thought they'd still be alive if he had been driving - Jason has hit a place in his life where he simply doesn't care anymore. Not about himself, his business; only his grief matters. He hadn't taken care of his own and they were dead because of it. But when he learns that the informant whose call he had been waiting on the night of his family's deaths was himself killed the same night, Jason is jolted back to life and into action. Believing there's no way the timing was a coincidence, Jason sets out to learn the true circumstances behind the informant's death. Before he knows it Jason finds himself in an ever deepening web of bribery, extortion, and kickbacks, one that appears to run all the way up to the Governor's office. Caught between crooked politicians and their shady advisers and the federal government investigating the corruption, Jason has to find a way to get to the truth he so desperately needs to move on with his life, while doing whatever necessary to make sure he doesn't end up in jail...or the ground. Author David Ellis isn't just any attorney turned novelist. Having served as the House Prosecutor in the Impeachment trial of Governor Rod Blagojevich before the Illinois State Senate, Ellis has had a unique peek behind the curtain at exactly how dirty politics can get and what is needed to take down corrupt government officials. That, combined with his finely tuned feel for dialogue and the sympathetic, well developed character of Jason Kolarich, makes Breach of Trust the most absorbing political thriller I've read in quite some time.
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