Customer Reviews

A Cinderella Affidavit

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Fredrickson's book. The plot, though based on a fairly recent real-life incident, is highly fictionalized and is just the jumping-off point for Mr. Fredrickson's book.

Indeed, the very fact that, in the novel, the Massachusetts Bar Counsel even considers investigating and, perhaps, recommending discipline against the book's principal character, a lawyer in a large Boston firm, is the clearest indication of the book's fictional nature. Mr. Fredrickson returns closer to real life at the end of the novel when the firm's "bad" partner is allowed to simply retire early.

As a novel, however, the book is a terrific read and I am eagerly looking forward to Mr. Fredrickson's next work. Although I am a Massachusetts lawyer, you do not have to have any background in the law to appreciate this book and enjoy the plot or the characters.

Although I am only 3/4 of the way thru "A Cinderella Affidavit", I felt compelled to respond to the other review posted by Ms. Griffiths. The author clearly went out of his way to indicate that the book is not intended to be a portrayal of any actual person. This is a standard literary device authors have used for years - to take an actual event and use it solely as the jumping off point to write a compelling story.

And a compelling story is what "A Cinderella Affidavit" is. The book is tightly plotted (no, I haven't figured out the ending yet), has generally well-defined characters, and a strong sense of story-telling. The author does a better job creating lawyers than policemen (which make sense given his background) and creates a real sense of Boston and being part of a law firm (note the interactions with the partners and the Dead Partners Office).

In sone respects, this book is almost too much of a good thing in that the author has so much he wants to tell us. Given that so many mysteries are so much fluff, this is a welcome change.

I have no difficulty recommending this book to anyone who likes a good mystery. I plan to stay up late tonite to finish it and hope that there will be another book from Michael Fredrickson in the not-too-distant future.

This book has more depth and intrigue than a typical crime novel. The descriptions of life in a modern law firm and in a big city police department ring true. Frederickson clearly has done his research. Unlike lesser versions of the form, Frederickson asks his readers to work: to follow the story and to wrestle with the ethical dilemmas that confront the main character. Although some of the characters on the margins of the story are drawn to type, the central figures are well written and multi-dimensional. At times, I found the plot a bit heavy going and, too often, the author had to resort to long explanations of plot twists. However, the story is anything but predicable, and Frederickson generally keeps the action moving.

Equipment necessary for anybody intending to read this book:
1. a large ball of string.
2. a stack of 500 5"x8" blank filecards.
Instructions: tie the loose, initial end of the string to page 1, and keep unwinding it as you progress in your reading (something like Ariadne's string that allowed Theseus to get out of the Labirynth after slaying the Minotaur).
3. For each character you find as you go on, use a file card under his/her name (surname, name, job, relationship, page first appeared, etc. - to your like).
If 500 cards is too few, buy more of them.
I didn't take these precautions, and began reading the book the usual way I do: trusting my reading capabilities and my memory.
The 2 pages of "Epilogue", I imagine, were meant as a compress of aspirin to relieve the reader's headache. It really is a "PP-FFffff-tt..."
The paperback edition I have is 450 pages. I put the book away after 176 of them. My head was spinning and hurting.

As soon as I'm finished writing this review and I've sent it, the book will go into the dustbin.
Oh, BTW: the introductory page of my edition bears the "Lawyer's Journal" review: "Move over John Grisham, Esq.; Watch out Scott Turow".
Messieurs Grisham and Turow, be easy: no need to worry.
My "one star" rating is in consideration of the paper used for the book.

Unlike Cinderella, this story won't fade at midnight--quite the contrary, you are likely to be up long past 12 turning pages. What gives this legal thriller an especially unusual edge are the various ethical dilemmas and scenarios so keenly portrayed in the book. The writing is exceptional: urbane, witty and graceful. While it may be a cliche, the characters really DO jump off the page. What are you waiting for? If this is your genre, this is a must-read. And if its not, this book just may make you a devotee--if not of the field of legal thrillers, then definitely of this author.

First, let me disclose a conflict: I live and work in Boston. And am a lawyer.

With a book like Michael Fredrickson's A Cinderella Affidavit, one must start with a conflicts check. After all, Fredrickson is chief counsel to the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, the agency that polices lawyers, and he knows a thing or two about legal ethics and their sometimes-punctilious demands.

And so it is that his new novel provides a short course in how not to represent a client. The walking malpractice suit in a tie is one Matthew Boer, so named not because he is dull, but because he in unfortunate enough to have thrust upon him a moral crisis that, by book's end, will require him to probe mysteries that his and our better senses counsel keeping far alee. Matt, a mid-level and middling associate (that is, a drone) in a tony Boston law firm, finds himself drawn inexorably (is there any other way?) into a tale of murder and betrayal -- and then murder and betrayal all over again.

It all starts with cop shot to death in a Chinatown drug raid. Fredrickson writes the scene with an are described as black gashes that burst instantaneously out of a killing silence. Like the best of Robert Altman, Fredrickson can draw anguish from the ether faster than most people can gasp.

Things turn strange when we learn that the search warrant for the raid appears to have been issued based on the anonymous testimony of a non-existent informant. That is, based on a "Cinderella" affidavit. This is a book of great depth. If you think you're going for Grisham, keep going. Even though he's from Mississippi, Grisham doesn't really know how to write. Fredrickson does. He can illuminate character in a few sentences, entertain you with wordplay, describe the worlds of cops and lawyers with equal felicity, infuse the moment with a sudden eroticism, and craft a plot that is the literary equivalent of a Swiss watch -- except that it may cause you to lose all sense of time.

This is, as they say, a book "you can't put down." So don't pick it up if you have a brief to write. Otherwise, you may find yourself facing bar discipline. - Rusty Russel

Fresh, frank and funny, "A Cinderella Affidavit" is an intelligent journey into the diverse and colliding worlds that constitute MA Law. The richly woven tale takes you on a ride that is as challanging as it is entertaining--just when you think your going to stop, you're propelled around a corner that you could have sworn wasn't there before. The author's flair for description, legal acumen and bottomless vocabulary combine to entice you, involve you, and untimately reward you with a reading experience you'll treasure. I did.

The author knows the law and lawyers, which takes this tale above many of the rest. The plot twists stretch credibility, but a very good first novel.

Don't confuse this book with your average legal thriller. Character development, plot, prose quality, and depth of content all stand out. And in a first novel, to boot! The book zips along, smooth and fast. You experience the many plot twists like a sports car passenger driven flat out over a winding road by a pro. The characters keep on growing, well past the end of the book. You may never eat in a Chinese restaurant the same way again!

INCREDIBLE FOR A FIRST NOVEL!!! PERHAPS M. FREDRICKSON WILL BE THE NEXT GRISHAM.