Suffering from courtroom burnout, attorney Ben Kincaid heads to the picturesque Pacific Northwest for some much-needed R and R. But Ben's blissful getaway becomes a busman's holiday in the small town of Magic Valley, where a pitched battle between the local logging industry and crusading conservationists has led to brutal murder.
Years earlier, professional activist George Zakin was successfully defended against a charge of murder by a fledgling attorney named Ben Kincaid. Now, accused of viciously killing a lumberjack, Zakin is counting on Ben to duplicate that long-ago courtroom coup. With the odds stacked against him, Ben walks into a war zone in the courtroom . . . and a potential killing field in Magic Valley, an explosive place where allies and enemies are hard to tell apart--and digging for the truth is as good as digging your grave.
The eighth in a series of popular courtroom cliffhangers, Bernhardt's newest Ben Kincaid novel (after Extreme Justice) finds the savvy defense attorney in a tiny logging town in the Pacific Northwest. The sinister forces at work behind Magic Valley's Bunyan-esque simplicity emerge when a tree-cutter explodes in anger and kills a local lumberjack?and Ben's old client, George Zakin, is suspected of the foul play. Called on to defend this man again (six years earlier Zakin had been accused and acquitted of an ecoterrorism homicide), Ben reluctantly takes the case. Ben's investigation of the other suspects?a scar-faced drug lord, the mysterious Bigfoot creature often sighted in the thick, dark woods, the leader of a covert logging consortium called "The Cabal" and many a vicious redneck snarling repetitiously about "tree-huggers"?brings Ben into dangerous contact with the Magic Valley's underbelly. The sexiness of Ben's opponent, "stunning young prosecutor" "Granny" Adams, raises the courtroom stakes. But somehow?perhaps because the cranky old hanging judge would rather be fishing?these scenes fail to deliver the drama they promise. Bernhardt juices the suspense with chapter-ending teasers ("The secret would have to die. With her."), but the gratuitous violence and oversimplification of the logging controversy keep the potboiler on medium-high at best. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Thrillingly interwoven plots are Bernhardt's forte, a talent he once again demonstrates full-blown in his latest superb legal thriller featuring attorney Ben Kincaid. Six years ago, Ben defended an animal-rights activist charged with murder. Zoom to the present. Ben, in Washington State on a book-signing tour, is arrested for breaking and entering as he attempts to liberate a cat whose owner has sentenced it to unnecessary euthanasia. Ben inadvertently gets involved in a group called Green Rage, a conservationist organization wrestling with the local logging industry in a life-or-death struggle. One of the members of the group has been charged with a horrible murder--and who is the alleged perp? None other than the man Ben defended six years ago. To defend him again, Ben has to go up against prosecutor Granville "Granny" Adams, who, despite her moniker, is attractive and tough as nails. She is bound and determined to win this case. In the meantime, subplots swirl and crash around Ben's feet, but these only serve to enrich the entertainment value of this wonderfully riveting read. Brad Hooper--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I love my job. Even on the worst day when I can't seem to put together a coherent sentence, I am grateful for having been given this magnificent opportunity to participate in the literary exchange of ideas. My mother says I was telling people I wanted to be a writer when I was seven. I know that seems incredible, but she's my mom, so we have to believe her. I never missed an opportunity to visit the library, which was blissfully near my home, and the librarians there took a great interest in this nerdy, shy, bespectacled kid who kept reappearing almost every day. They encouraged me to read widely and to read the best of everything, and that is exactly what I did and have continued to do all my life.
I sent off my first submission when I was eleven, to Highlights Magazine. This was a poem of which I was particularly proud concerning the Oklahoma Land Run. They turned me down. Yes, that was my first rejection letter. Over the next twenty years, I collected over 400 more of them. No, I'm not exaggerating. I still have them. Every last one. There was a reason, I realize now, why all those compositions were being rejected. They weren't very good. But they improved over time. I didn't know it, but during the entire torturous process of submission and rejection, I was learning how to write.
I finally had my first novel published (by Ballantine, a division of Random House) when I was thirty-one. To some, this may seem an early age to publish, but if you clock it from my first rejection, it took twenty years. That was a great year--my first son, Harry, was born in August, and my first book, Primary Justice, was born in December. The book surprised everyone and the follow-up did even better and before I even realized it I had accomplished my goal--I was a real honest-to-gosh writer. I've been writing ever since. I've written more than twenty novels, edited two anthologies, done two books for children, and published numerous stories, essays, puzzles, and poems. I have three children now, and this job allows me to be present when they come home from school and available when they need me during the day, which is a blessing I could not have anticipated back when I was a seven-year old gazing dreamily at author photos on dust jackets, wishing I could see myself there.
My goals for the future are to continue to learn, to grow, to find new ways of doing my work and doing it better. I think the current interest in thrillers provides a marvelous opportunity to spin bigger and more exciting stories. I've learned that I enjoy teaching, which has led to the William Bernhardt Writing Programs and The Fundamentals of Fiction DVDs, as well as many speaking and teaching engagements throughout the year. My interest in mentoring aspiring writers led me to start the Small-Group Seminars and Master Classes, which allow me to teach my favorite subject all across the nation. And in my personal life, my goal is I to be the best parent possible to Harry, Alice, and Ralph, and the best possible partner to my wife, Marcia. I'm very excited about the future--my personal life with these extraordinary people, and my professional life, creating new stories for you wonderful people who still understand the importance of storytelling and the written word. ------- William Bernhardt is the author of more than twenty novels, including Primary Justice, Murder One, Criminal Intent, Death Row, Capitol Murder, Capitol Threat, Capitol Conspiracy, and Nemesis. He is one of fewer than a dozen recipients of the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." He is also one of the country's most popular writing instructors, teaching at various conferences throughout the year. A former trial attorney, Bernhardt has received several awards for his public service. He lives in Tulsa with his wife, Marcia, and their children.
For the first 400 pages, I thought this is one of the best "legal-thrillers" that I have read. The author digs the protagonist in deeper and deeper. Yes, the judge is one-sided, but there are such judges. But the ending is somewhat disappointing--it takes too easy a way out. Still it is well worth reading.
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I was so annoyed with the way the book was read that it was hard for me to relax to the story, which, incidentally, was on a subject that interests me very much. The man who reads it ends every sentence with a rising inflection, whether it is a question or not. It becomes a monotonous attention stealer, a cruel destruction of a perfectly good book. You wonder why he was hired to do the reading. Don't they audition their readers? Or listen to them while they're reading? If you like to be read to, get your twelve-year old to read it. He'll do a better job.
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This review is from: Dark Justice (Mass Market Paperback)
Though this book had a good start, the trial to the end of the book was slooooow. I ended up skimming through most of the latter parts of the book and still managed to get the story line. The scene of the fire at the cabin was oh too unbelievable. The author and story lost credibility with me there. Also, the confession by the murderer was too speech like as a previous reviewer noted. Not natural. The relationship between Christina and the Sheriff was fine, but why did the author feel he had to belabor Kincaid's opinion on that relationship? For goodness sake, enough is enough. I didn't feel the book was too pro-environmentalist and preachy though. I felt the writer did a good job in that respect of illustrating both sides of the economical vs. conservation conflict. I did enjoy the story for the most part, mostly because it wasn't the same trite plot that is in most murder mysteries. The loggers vs. conservationists battle does continue to rage on and I was eager to hear more about this. The author did a good job in this respect of including facts into the story so you could learn as you read along, more about what goes on with respect to logging. Aw yes, a few details re: facts were off, but as a previous reviewer stated that didn't affect the story, and last I checked, editors are still human.
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First Sentence:
Tess O'Connell pushed the thick foliage out of her path, but her hand snagged on a sharp thorn. Read the first pageKey Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Green Rage, Judge Pickens, Magic Valley, Dwayne Gardiner, Sheriff Allen, George Zakin, Alberto Vincenzo, Ben Kincaid, Deputy Wagner, Forest Service, National Whisper, Madame Prosecutor, Rick Collier, Deputy Andrews, Main Street, Tess O'Connell, The Time Machine, Detective Cath, Holiday Inn, Jeremiah Adams, Mount Crescent, Crescent National Forest, Deputy Goldsmith, Earth First, Marco Geppi
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