Claire Heller Chapman has the perfect life. She's a Harvard Law professor and criminal defense attorney known for taking on - and winning - tough cases. She's also happily married to Tom, and has a six-year-old daughter she adores.
Then Tom is arrested by a team of government agents and accused of a 13-year-old wartime atrocity he insists he didn't commit. Claire soon discovers that her husband is not who he says he is, that once he had a different name, even a different face.
Now Claire must defend Tom in a top-secret military court-marshal. As her career, and even her life, are put in jeopardy, she must try to believe in her husband's innocence - even when everything indicates that he is a killer
When (not if---the deal has already been signed) this terrific thriller gets made into a movie, you might see Morgan Freeman as a crusty lawyer who specializes in taking on the military establishment tell the actress playing ace Boston barrister and Harvard Law professor Claire Heller Chapman, "Every civilian who's ever gone into a military general court-martial and tried to attack the foundations of the military has lost his case. No exceptions. The military is a tight, closed fraternity. They take it real serious. Military justice is a deadly serious business." Claire has to realize this as she prepares to defend her husband--the man she knows as Tom Chapman, but who the Army says is Ron Kubik-- on charges that he took part in a massacre of 87 civilians in San Salvador 13 years before. Full of doubts about Tom's innocence and her own ability to prove it in an unfamiliar arena, Claire is brought to exciting, moving life by the extravagantly gifted Joseph Finder, whose previous thrillers (Extraordinary Powers, The Zero Hour) are available in paperback.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Finder's Zero Hour (LJ 4/1/96) was a dynamite blockbuster, and his new work is slated for the same big marketing treatment. Cinematic qualities predominate as the dialog roles on page after page with taut give-and-take and sudden plot turns that leave little time for reflection or description. (Not surprisingly, the novel is slated to become a Tri-Star Pictures motion picture.) The plot is arrow-straight: a woman lawyer, at the top of her profession, must defend her husband in a military court for his alleged horrific crimes while serving in Vietnam. Steeped in the arcane detail of military justice, with a tough-mouthed heroine and a hardworking support cast, this is not likely to be a candidate for Oprah's Book Club, but it is a sure bet for most thriller collections.?Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Joseph Finder's plan was to become a spy. Or maybe a professor of Russian history. Instead he became a bestselling thriller writer, and winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel for KILLER INSTINCT (2006) and winner of the Barry and Gumshoe Awards for Best Thriller for COMPANY MAN (2005).
Born in Chicago, Joe spent his early childhood living around the world, including Afghanistan and the Philippines. In fact, Joe's first language -- even before English -- was Farsi, which he spoke as a child in Kabul. After a stint in Bellingham, WA, his family finally settled outside of Albany, NY.
After taking a high school seminar on the literature and history of Russia, Joe was hooked. He went on to major in Russian studies at Yale, where he also sang with the school's legendary a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs (and likes to boast that he sang next to Ella Fitzgerald, an honorary Whiffenpoof). Joe graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then completed a master's degree at the Harvard Russian Research Center, and later taught on the Harvard faculty. He was recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency but eventually decided he preferred writing fiction.
His first book, published in 1983 when Joe was only 24, was RED CARPET: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE KREMLIN AND AMERICA'S MOST POWERFUL BUSINESSMEN, the first book to reveal that the controversial multi-millionaire Dr. Armand Hammer, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, had worked for Soviet intelligence in the 1920s and 1930s. (This book is no longer in print.)
But RED CARPET was only part of the story that Joe wanted to tell. So he wrote his first novel - the only way he could legally tell the whole Armand Hammer saga. Published in 1991, THE MOSCOW CLUB described events whose factual truth would only be revealed many years later. THE MOSCOW CLUB was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best spy thrillers of all time and was published in thirty foreign countries.
What followed were three more critically-acclaimed thrillers - EXTRAORDINARY POWERS, THE ZERO HOUR (sold to Twentieth-Century Fox for a record sum) and HIGH CRIMES, which became a 2002 Fox film starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. Joe was invited on the movie set and even cast for a nonspeaking role as a JAG prosecutor.
Published in 2004, PARANOIA represented a major turning point in Joe's career, landing on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, among others. It was his first book to use the ruthless drive, corruption and conspiracy of the corporate world as riveting plotline. Called "fun...movie-ready...[with] twists aplenty..." by Entertainment Weekly, PARANOIA has been acquired by Gaumont, one of the world's largest film production and distribution companies. The movie deal was announced in April 2009, with Barry Levy ("Vantage Point") set to script the adaptation.
Joe's next three novels - COMPANY MAN, KILLER INSTINCT and POWER PLAY - were all bestsellers in which things were decidedly not business as usual. He was quickly hailed as "the CEO of suspense."
In VANISHED, published August 2009 by St. Martin's Press and an immediate bestseller, Joe introduced his new continuing character, "private spy" Nick Heller. Trained in the Special Forces, Nick is a high-powered intelligence investigator - exposing secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. He's a guy you don't want to mess with. He's also the man you call when you need a problem fixed. The second novel in the series, BURIED SECRETS, was published June 2011.
In addition to his fiction, Joe does occasional work for Hollywood, is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and Council on Foreign Relations, and has written on espionage and international affairs for a number of publications, including TheDailyBeast.com, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. He roots for the Boston Red Sox and lives in Boston with his wife, daughter, and a needy golden retriever, Mia, a dropout from seeing-eye-dog school.
The protagonist of this thriller is a woman attorney who is described as "winning the tough cases." One of those "tough cases" she won involves getting a rapist's conviction overturned on a technicality. So, Finder has written Claire Heller as a brilliant and gifted attorney, but I wanted to know more about the woman who finds legal loopholes to free rapists rather than just the smart attorney side of her. What I liked about High Crimes was that Finder didn't lose sight of the person behind the attorney and how what she does for a living affects her in all parts of her life.
When Claire Heller finds out that the man who helped her through a rocky time in her life, and who she then eventually came to love and marry, is not the person she thought he was, she's stunned and torn between who and what to believe. Then the professional attorney part of her kicks in, and she decides to defend the man she married, no matter who he is, against charges that he massacred 87 innocent people in El Salvador when he was part of a Special Services Unit in the armed forces. For those who enjoy courtroom drama and tactics, this book certainly delivers on all counts. As others before me have said, it was hard to put this one down because the story keeps developing with new levels of information that dig deeper into who Claire's husband really is and whether he could have done the horrible crimes for which he is accused. While Claire dilligently works to collect whatever evidence she can use to clear her husband of his charges, she never loses sight of the fact that if he isn't who she believed him to be, then what kind of man did she marry? Ultimately she gets her answers in a very well written ending.
I haven't read any of Finder's other books, but on the basis of this one, I'm interested in reading more of his work. It has been a while since I've read a book that was difficult to put down while at the same time made me aware of just what it is lawyers do to win cases for people who are accused, and are possibly guilty of, heinous crimes. Finder's descriptions are so clear and vivid, I was right there in the courtroom with Claire experiencing the action through a spectator's eyes. One cross-examination in particular was just riveting and shows off Finder's writing talent perfectly.
I gave this book 5 stars because 6 stars wasn't an option. Yep, it's THAT good! From everything I've heard and read, we should all skip the movie and either read or reread the book. That way we certainly won't be disappointed!
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As someone who despises the corruption far too often found in American government and fascinated with the workings of our legal system - both civilian and otherwise - this title really was a grand slam with me. It was entertaining while still being down to earth and representative of the issues any trial lawyer with scruples must wrestle with.
The pace at which this title keeps the reader turning pages is ferocious and accuracy of the legal events in the title is astounding. At the same time, a sense of realism and a sense of normalcy is maintained throughout. At several times the reader is startled by unexpected events to keep him going.
But perhaps the most startling event of all is the ending. In nearly all cases... the knowledgeable reader already has a good idea what the ending will be before reading 75% of the title and is rarely shocked by the ending. There are plenty of hairpin turns and sharp corners in this book, none are more abrupt than the ending which leave the reader both satisfied and puzzled.
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This was the first book by Joseph Finder I have ever read. Seldom do I encounter a book which I truly hate to see end. Finder is as exciting, albeit more readable, than Robert Ludlum. His villains are menacing, his characters are people you care about, and the endings have unique twists.The ending of High Crimes was a total, yet logical, surprise. I was so impressed I immediately read Zero Hour, and currently have his other two books in my home. This is a writer who I will be reading from now on, every time a new book appears. Great, great stuff!
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