Customer Reviews

A Fool for a Client

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A legal thriller and courtroom drama that's up there with the best of them. This book pushes all the right buttons: a young woman accused of murdering an INLA terrorist (in America), conducting her own defence and refusing to cooperate with her young, black court-appointed co-counsel. There's sexual as well as legal tension in the air and the book keeps guessing right until the end.

As a firm believer in JUSTICE (as opposed to law), I love revenge stories - as long as the revenge is targeted on the guilty. This one fits the bill quite nicely. A medical student (and a pretty, female one at that) has (maybe) killed an IRA terrorist. Or has she? Things are not always as they seem and in the trial resulting from her action she must keep all her wits about her.

David Kessler's first book has been on my shelves for a long time. But after finishing off his non-fiction book about the Rachel Nickell case The The Wimbledon Common Murder, I decided to re-read this one to remind myself how it all started. And I was as impressed as I was the first time. This book has sharp cross-examination, surprises, behind the scenes legal shenanigans, Irish nationalist assassins and even a hint of sexual dynamics as it hurtles inexorably towards a stunning courtroom climax.

I always want to know the ending right away and will often skip to the end to read it and then read the rest of the book. "A Fool For a Client" grabbed my attention right away and didn't let up. I didn't even consider skipping to end. I read 4-5 books per month and thought this was one of the best I have read in a long time. I enjoyed reading about, and unfortunately recognized, the weaknesses of our legal system.

David Kessler's first thriller - now out in Kindle format - clearly tries to cover a lot of ground. Vigilante justice, the flaws in an imperfect legal system, the contagious effect of the pursuit of revenge, terrorism as a political weapon, the side-effects of terrorism, forgotten victims, fighting the battles of the past. Even inter-racial relationships get a look in when the heroine and her standby counsel find themselves falling for each other, despite her refusal to let him take over her defense and his insistence that she is making a grave mistake by not letting him.

With such a colossal undertaking in what is a rather short book (about 80,000 words I'd guess), it is hardly surprising that the author only partially succeeds. The result is an interesting, but somewhat uneven work. At times, the author appears to be philosophizing too much or over-describing, but at other times he is giving us snappy dialogue and sharp courtroom cross-examination. One of the best scenes is towards the end when the prosecutor expresses his doubts to his boss, the Manhattan DA. Another powerful scene is when the girl accused of murder finally opens up to her standby counsel about her relationship with her mother - a powerful factor in her motivation.

The author (who is clearly British) does make some errors about American modern history and takes a certain amount of dramatic license with courtroom procedure. On the other hand, he offers some powerful insights into the events of the Northern Irish dispute that forms the backdrop to this thriller and does an almost Dostoyevsky-like job of peeling off the protective layers that hide the soul of a sincere but hopelessly misguided terrorist.

I've deducted one star because of the books minor failings, but it's still well-worth reading if you like an intelligent thriller. His follow-up to this one - The Other Victim - is now also available for the Kindle.

It's not too long, but it's long enough to extract every last drop of juice from the drama. Right from the opening line in which the heroine declares she has the constitutional right to conduct her own defense, you know this is going to be a gripping courtroom drama. It is also a tense and taut thriller.

The author is strong on description, action and dialogue, especially the latter. The book held my attention from the beginning, but by the end it was moving fast and furious. One of the interesting things in this book is that the Big Twist is not so surprising, but it serves as a clever stalking horse, for several other twists before and after that I didn't see coming.

One of the interesting things about this book is that it manages to combine mystery with suspense, challenging to ones sense of ethics as well as appealing to the imagination.

This is a legal thriller that raises some interesting moral questions about vigilante justice. The story is about a girl on trial for the murder of a man who appears to have been an Irish nationalist and terrorist. However, despite his background, there is no clear indication, at first, of why this particular girl (a Jewish medical student in New York) would have any connection with the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland and the campaign of terror that spread from there to the British mainland.

But the vigilante question goes deeper than that, because we eventually learn that the deceased Irish nationalist was himself motivated by certain personal considerations (I will not spoil it by revealing them). Furthermore, the desire for revenge doesn't end there, because then, cronies of the dead man come after the girl, adding some exciting gun action to the cut and thrust of cross-examination and argument in the courtroom.

Kessler does very well to stay in control most of the way, although there are a few lapses in what is for the first part very lively dialogue. There are also a few introspective scenes involving the prosecutor, defence lawyer, late Irish nationalist (in flashback) and the accused girl herself. But I can't help thinking that there was perhaps a little too much introspection, considering that the book was relatively short. On the other hand there is plenty of crackling courtroom debate as witnesses are caught out, lawyers are blind-sided and spectators shocked by the sequence of revelations. That more than makes up for the contemplation-of-navels passages.

The action element was also handled well. Not that there was a lot of "gun play." But it was precisely because Kessler kept it to a minimum, that it was so powerful when it intruded into the course of events. I would have liked to read some of his other books but only Mercy and
No Way Out seem to be available for the Kindle at the moment.

anyhow it is worth the five stars. read it, too!

I love legal thrillers and read as many as I can get my hands on. But this one stands out about the crowd.

On the surface, the heroine, Justine Levy, is on trial for murder in New York, but it soon becomes apparent that this isn't just a thriller, but a novel of ideas. She is alleged to have killed a man by poison. But it soon emerges that he died of a different poison to the one she is alleged to have given him! And that's only the beginning. The issue is not just about what the main characters did, but also why they did it - and Kessler keeps the reader guessing right until the end.

Justine Levy is a medical student, but she insists on conducting her own defense and ends up displaying more legal acumen than her court-appointed standby counsel.

Aside from the courtroom drama there are the psychological taut flashbacks and the tense scenes in which an assassin stalks Justine with the intention of killing her regardless of the verdict. Finally there is a real sting in the tail.

John Grisham and Brad Melzer face stiff competition from Kessler and I recommend this thiller most highly to lovers of legal thrillers as one of the best in the genre.