Customer Reviews

Death Eligible: A Darcy Cole Novel

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Mr. Axelrood is yet another attorney who writes extremely well and in my opinion doesn't get the readership he deserves. All three of his Darcy Cole books are very good - arguably this may be his best. Cole runs his own private, (small but lucrative), criminal defense firm in downtown Chicago and finds himself defending two rapists/murderers - both facing the death penalty - and individually from decidedly different "sides of the tracks". The author presents all the legal (and moral) issues involved in these crimes,(the justice system, the individuals involved, the recent political circumstances of trying such cases in Illinois), in a coherent, objective and human way. Not easy to do with this issue. The author has also written a very engaging mystery to boot. If there is a fault in this book, it's the rushed courtroom/trial resolution in the last 25-30 pages of the book. That said, the plot, characters, dialog, setting, balancing and writing are all excellent. If you are a fan of Buffa, Rosenfelt, Lescroart or Tapply you will enjoy this author's books.

All the moral and legal complexities pertinent to the death penalty are on display in this nicely crafted third novel in Mr. Axelrood's legal series featuring criminal defense attorney Darcy Cole. Axelrood has gotten stronger with each successive novel, and I look forward to future installments in the series. In my opinion, the criminal legal world is accurately represented as being largely disinterested in JUSTICE, the grand concept, and far more susceptible to political considerations than any of us would hope to be the case. Especially enjoyable to me are the prose snapshots of life in Chicago in the series, with many familiar locales popping up.

This third installment in the Darcy Cole series is easily Axelrood's best yet. In a non-judgmental manner which lets the reader make up his or her own mind, the author lays out compelling circumstances in a compelling narrative that point up the weaknesses in a system that has capital punishment, and at the same time reveals in a realistic manner those special circumstances that cry out for the ultimate punishment.

Darcy Cole continues to be an intriguing literary character whose age and experience bespeak a persona too often lacking in cookie cutter characters going blithely through cookie cutter plots so common in today's legal fiction. Instead, Axelrood has given us a character (and similarly engaging supporting characters) in whose fate we genuinely care about, and at the same time has crafted a page-turning good yarn. It also has a distinct "Chicago" feel, without the obligatory cheap references to Michael Jordan or machine politics. Instead, that "feel" comes from one who has apparently lived what he is talking about.