Customer Reviews

The Law of Second Chances: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there really were a law of second chances? However, not everyone deserves a second chance and very few people ever get a second chance.

Jack Tobin is a retired lawyer. His legal practice did not include criminal cases, but when an old friend came to him and pleaded to help his son, Jack got involved in pro bono cases to free wrongly convicted criminals. Jack would not take a case unless he was totally convinced that the person was innocent of the crime for which he had been convicted.

Jack and his wife Pat live in Bass Creek, Florida. Pat has always been interested in Jack's cases, and he enjoys discussing the pros and cons of each case with Pat. Jack has taken on the case of Henry Wilson, convicted years before of murder, when his wife Pat is diagnosed with cancer. Jack almost gives up the case to devote all of his time to his wife. Pat will not agree to this so Jack fights Henry's fight while trying to deal with his wife's illness.

Meanwhile back in Manhattan, Benny Avril, a small-time hood is arrested for murder. Although Benny does not know it, he has a connection to Jack-and eventually Jack will become involved in Benny's case.

The story of Jack's fight to save Henry, the conclusion, and the connection to Benny in Manhattan makes for a very exciting story. The legal battles give the reader an insight to what really happens on paper and in the courtroom.

The flashbacks to Jack's life as a young boy in New York help you to understand Jack and his young friends. It is amazing the different directions life led these young people and how some are finally able to come together in their adult years.

I intend to recommend this book to all my friends. I also feel now I must read The Mayor of Lexington Avenue, the book published prior to The Law of Second Chances.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended for anyone who loves legal thrillers-and good writing.

The author, James Sheehan sets lofty literary goals for himself when he embarks on his journey with three simultaneous plot lines. Sheehan not only keeps all three stories interesting, but makes you look forward to getting back to the other two tales, while you're still immensely interested in the current saga you're immersed in. The book starts out in New York focusing on Benny Avrile, a down and out, street-hustling, drug-abusing, pick pocket, street reprobate, who if you didn't count the abandoned building he slept in, you could also add "homeless" to the previous description.(Think of "Ratso Rizzo" from "MIDNIGHT COWBOY") As fate would have it, as Benny is stealing a credit card from an attractive woman at a bar, he is unknowingly, interfering with the unholy agenda of another beautiful upscale woman, sitting next to his targeted victim, who has much higher criminal aspirations than Benny could ever dream of. Before you know it, Carl Robertson, a multi-billionaire oil man, is shot and killed and Benny is arrested for murder.

The protagonist is Jack Tobin, a lawyer who had made his money defending insurance companies and lives in Florida. After building up his law firm and selling it for millions of dollars, Jack now only defends people he believes are innocent and "destiny" has brought him to Starke, a maximum security state prison in Florida. A big, physically imposing, African-American inmate by the name of Henry Wilson, after being on death row for seventeen years, is now eight weeks away from being executed. After a harrowing meeting with Henry at the prison, and some follow-up investigation, Jack believes in Henry's innocence and takes on his case in the hopes of being granted an appeal.

In the midst of these two major storylines, the author deftly interjects "flashbacks" to more than thirty years before to Jacks adolescence in New York, mostly concentrating on his friends and acquaintances surrounding his neighborhood football team "The Lexington's". The teenage friendships made here, miraculously and seamlessly, tie in down the road during the fantastic culmination of this intelligently written crime saga. This taut legal drama encompasses lifelong love lost, lives saved, friendships renewed, murder, conspiracies, characters who change from client to sidekick to partner, all without the author missing a beat, and with the reader refusing to put down the book until they ride this multi-dimensional masterpiece to its conclusion.

I am a voracious reader and the recent products put out by Grisham and Patterson pale in comparison to this splendid story. The author has introduced and has in place some really interesting characters that hopefully will set the stage for a follow-up book with our newfound friends.

Sheehan's 2nd outhing featuring Jack Tobin gives you not one, but two legal thrillers! The first one is a death-row case in Florida, and when that case reaches a resolution---along with the foreshadowed life-changing event for Tobin---it's off to Manhattan for another legal thriller. Sheehan's writing is crisp, and though his dialogue is somewhat stilted, the book manages to move along believeably and at a breakneck pace. There are some twists that you'll be surprised at, and some events that make little sense, but if you're like me you'll be staying up late to finish this as fast as you can.

My Kindle died last week. End of sad story there. I called customer service and they sent out a next one via next day air. Problem is, I am in Honduras right now with the military. So, even though Amazon hooked me up with a Kindle in no time, I had to wait for the post office and the military to get me my new Kindle. It arrived today, yay!

So, as a Kindleless reader, I walked into the library on base and saw this book sitting there. The first time I saw it I passed it by. The second time I saw it I grabbed it and began a journey with the characters of the story. I picked the book up at about 1300 on Thursday and was done reading the book at about 1300 on Friday. I couldn't put it down! The author writes the way that Grisham used to write. A page turning book that is not so far fetched that you can believe the story, yet engrossing enough that you don't want to put it down.

If you love legal thrillers, you must read this book. When you are done, you will do as I have done, and look for other books by this brilliant legal writer. Step aside Grisham, there is a new author on the block, and his writing, story lines, and talent are making up for your bland and commercialized work.

James Sheehan has a new fan!

Defending insurance companies against claimants made attorney Jack Tobin wealthy, but unsatisfied. He gave up that practice to defend death row inmates in Florida as he totally opposes capital punishment.

Seventeen years ago, poor black Henry Wilson was convicted of murdering a drug dealer; Jack believes he is innocent and sets out to prove his assertion. He also decides to represent Benny Avrile, who has a long criminal record and on a robbery that turned ugly allegedly shot and killed oil mogul Carl Robertson; the case against him is air tight with no lawyer wanting to go near it. At the same that Jack steps in to represent Benny in a death sentence case that he knows will take up much of his time and have an emotional cost, he is also is distraught that his wife Pat is suffering from a life-threatening illness.

With more courtroom time than Jack's first tale (see THE MAYOR OF LEXINGTON AVENUE), THE LAW OF SECOND CHANCES is an excellent legal thriller due the protagonist's deliberations on life and law; although at times he slows the pace with flashbacks to growing up in 1950s-1960s New York. Still it is the hero's balancing his emotions and time to defend capital punishment sure shot losers with the needs of his wife and (himself) that make this a terrific legal thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I had to notice some similarities between Sheehan's character Jack Tobin and Grippando's character Jack Swyteck. Both are lawyers living in Florida, and both have had "clients" who were on death row and were "gotten off" in an eleventh hour appeal. Both men were also black--Grippando's Theo Knight, and Sheehan's Henry Wilson. Both men are also now working for their attorney who successfully got them off death row. I think that Henry will become more of a side kick in some future books. (At least I hope so.)
That being said, I couldn't put this book down. It had some flash backs from Jack's (Johnny's) earlier life and I wondered what these flashbacks had to do with the story, but be patient, it will all come together. The book was fast paced and kept you guessing. The ending was a real surprise. I am impatiently waiting for more from this author. This book would be perfect for a plane.

An excellent legal thriller, a page turner. The plots are well defined and easy to follow. I have rarily been so engrossed and absorbed in a court drame,its influences and demands.The justice angle is so strongly emphisised and ultemately beneficial to defendents and many others. I wish James Sheehan had written more. Hopefully he will! This thriller is a sequel to his first , equally brilliant, "The Mayor of Lexington Avenue", but can easily be read independently.I can't recoomend it enough!!

Mr. Sheehan, you've made a fan of me. Loved Jack Tobin; plot of novel was great, action had me turning pages faster than a laser copier. Only problem I thought was in not introducing Molly earlier (but I guess you really couldn't in view of Pat's recent death); somehow his meeting her was just too convenient, plus the fact that the mysterious woman was never mentioned, after initial meeting with Benny; think you could have done a better job with that character. Anyway, a darn good tale. Keep writing books like this and you can hang up your sheepskin and retire from the practice of law. Darlene Cox, Author

The Mayor of Lexington Avenue

James Sheehan's second novel, The Law of Second Chances, has brought us a captivating novel deftly weaving the the principle fo "6 degrees of separation" into the story of Jack Tobin, a Florida trial lawyer. This intriguing thriller was published in March 2008 by St. Martins Press.

Jack Tobin had been a successful civil trial lawyer, establishing his own firm. After twenty years he sells out his twenty million dollar interest to retire. Life intervenes and he finds a calling to represent death row inmates.

Henry Wilson has only eight weeks left on death row but with the encouragement of his wife, Pat, Jack assumes his case and begins his search for the new evidence to stop the execution. He is then approached by Luis, the father of another murder suspect. Luis turns out to be a childhood friend reaching out from his past. Benny is suspeccted of the murder of an oil man but when his original lawyer is murdered suspicions that begin with gut-feelings lead to the search for other suspects.

James Sheehan grew up in New York City and has been a practicing trial lawyer in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area for thirty years. Both have shaped his novels "The Law of Second Chances" and "The Mayor of Lexington Avenue"

As always I am interested in the customer reviews and I enjoyed the book but was not as impressed as other readers. I will not review the details of the plot which was interesting and was very well tied together. The problem is that the characters are too perfect. All characters are too predictably good folks while others are evil. Nobody has second thoughts. This critique is not to suggest that the book was not enjoyable but it did not reach the next level for me because I was never surprised about the character.