Customer Reviews

The Legacy

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Joseph Antonelli, criminal defense attorney extraordinaire, is back in D. W. Buffa's fourth legal thriller, "The Legacy." Unlike Buffa's previous efforts, this novel never comes to life. It is a slow-moving and cliche-ridden look at the corrupt practices of wealthy and amoral wheeler-dealers and politicians.

In this novel, Antonelli leaves Portland, Oregon, and travels to San Francisco to defend Jamaal Washington. Washington is a young black man accused of gunning down United States Senator Jeremy Fullerton during a robbery. Fullerton was a ruthless and ambitious politician who had many enemies. Antonelli is certain that Fullerton's death was no robbery; he is convinced that a political enemy assassinated the Senator. Antonelli is determined to free the likeable Jamaal, a soft-spoken pre-med student who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Buffa writes this book as if he were doing a painting-by-numbers. He uses plot devices that we have seen too many times before. Many authors have written more compellingly about political charlatans who pretend to be altruistic, but who are really self-serving and corrupt.

Antonelli's character is strangely lifeless, as is his love interest, Marissa. Neither the courtroom scenes nor the twist at the end can save "The Legacy" from being a run-of-the-mill legal thriller that is not up to Buffa's usually high standards.

This is the weakest of all Buffa's books so far. I got my hands on Buffa's first book Defense when it was still in its advance reading-stage and I have since loaned it out to everyone I know as an intelligent, thoughtful and intensive legal-thriller. I have read all the other three Buffa's books now and must say that Buffa's creativity is unfortunately deteriorating here, as he is stretching his material to publish books of marketable length. It seems to me that since his last book, Buffa has either become pressured by his editors to write standard-size 400+ pages books, or he gets paid by the word.

The Legacy follows yet again farther "adventures" of Joseph Antonelli. Buffa's writing here is again pensive, reflective and attempts to be thorough when it comes to the development of his characters. But unlike in his first two books, all that seems to come at a price here. Buffa looses sight of his goal - the reader is swallowed in completely irrelevant details as the writer hopelessly tries to fill the page. Buffa becomes so lost in this book in his attempt to write an abbreviated behind the scene history of San Francisco and introduce us to the corrupt world of politicians and the rich that he forgets that he is writing a legal thriller. The book consists effectively of two parts: the first 300 pages which set up the trial and stretch a very thin story and the last 120 pages during which the trial takes place. Unfortunately, only the last 120 are worth reading and allow the book to fit the legal thriller category. In the first 300, each piece of information is repeated at least three times. This background is neither very interesting nor ultimately relevant. All I could ask myself was, what was it that interested Buffa about the rich and famous and why does he make me read it?

None of the rich and politicians are interesting characters. He even decries their corruption and their shallow intelligence - perhaps that is his purpose in this book (something the Bogdonovitch character debates in the end) - but at the same time, we are forced to read the life story of at least 3 politicians and 3 rich people. But the biggest problem for me was how Buffa portrayed the accused. I might be wrong, but I remember only about 3 instances in which Buffa even talks about him. We never get a sense of Jamaal's frustrations, inner struggles, or attempts to deal with the possibility of being convicted - even in the end! He is the least developed character in the whole book! Normally, character-development would be the last thing one would expect from legal-thrillers, but that has always been Buffa's strengths (considering the court-room action takes second stage).

Verdict: If you are looking for a smart legal-thriller with philosophical musings, with imaginative plot-twists and characters who attempt to reconcile themselves with life and everything (yes, Buffa can do all that) and offer interesting bits of wisdoms while they entertain you, I recommend the Defense and the Prosecution. The Legacy and his third novel Judgment are only for die-hart Buffa fans.

This 4th book in the Antonelli series was quite a disappointment. The first 3 books were well written with tight, interesting plots and subplots. Half way through this one, I had to force myself to continue. The characters were not well fleshed out, one of the "twists" in the story was very obvious from the beginning and overall it was a confusing and muddled tale. Near the end of the book, I found myself looking longingly at the stack of other books that I have available to read and I wound up scanning the last third of The Legacy just to finish it off. I guess all authors have a clunker now and then. I hope this was Mr. Buffa's misfire and that future books in this series will be as entertaining as the first 3 were.

In San Francisco, someone assassinates US Senator Jeremy Fullerton. The police spot a young black fleeing the scene. They fire, wound, and arrest Jamaal Washington for killing Fullerton.

Surprisingly, without any obvious let alone remote connection to the accused, elderly local lawyer Albert Craven brings in Portland, Oregon attorney Joseph Antonelli to defend Jamaal. After hearing Jamaal's story on why he was there and how he ended up with the Senator's wallet, Joseph thinks the youngster is an easy fall guy taking the rap for a devious soul. Joseph quickly learns that Fullerton had presidential aspirations and built a cadre of cronies and supporters in the Bay area. A former KGB agent Andrei Bogdonovitch informs Joseph he has damaging information on the senator linking him to his former Soviet employer, but the informant is killed with an office bomb. The trial looks hopeless for the defense unless Joseph can pull off a last second Perry Mason-like miracle.

LEGACY starts off as an incredible legal thriller, but loses steam when it jumps the tracks into a conspiracy tale. The story line is at its best when Joseph investigates the senator and during the trial. The personal side of Joseph that frequents the plot slows down the story line while leaving the attorney not behaving as expected. Though the eyes of the world will pass JUDGMENT that Joseph is a strong egg, the exciting tale seems just off kilter.

Harriet Klausner

As a favor for his cousin, Joseph Antonelli leaves his Portland home and goes to San Francisco to defend a young black man who is accused of killing a United States Senator. The young man is a clean cut pre-med student at Berkeley. Antonelli believes that one of the Senator's powerful enemies is behind the murder.
D.W. Buffa has become one of my favorite legal thriller authors. His descriptions of San Francisco--which he seems to think is one of the best cities in the country--are vivid, and make an excellent background to this suspenseful thriller. Filled with riveting dialogue, along with quite a few surprises, I recommend this to all legal thriller fans.

Highly Recommended

The best book I ever read involving courtroom activity. A beautiful jigsaw puzzle of intrigue. The desciptions of how lawyer Joseph Antonelli does his work, down to exactly when he puts his hands in his pockets or moved an eyebrow show how important such things are in communication. I have never read a book that does that so well; I could relate to every item of body language. The story is terrific, and its unwinding a delight. This was my first Buffa book - won't be the last! I am at a loss to comprehend the other poor reviews. Maybe the abridged audio version and Mark Feuerstein's reading make it better than the unabridged hard cover original. All the the characters were excellently formed and believable. Every twist in the plot came as a surprize. I have read about 400 audiobooks in the last 3 years and this was in the top 3. I would think it would make a superb movie.

This was my first reading of a Buffa book and I thoroughly enjoyed its entertaining story. I like Joe Antonelli because he struggles with his cases and with his life. Moral and ethical issues are pondered and as a reader I began thinking how I would react in a similar situation.

The book is fiction so liberties are taken. The conclusion was a surprise to me. However, I have read all the Ludlum and Clancy books and Buffa's style is more like theirs than Turow's or Grisham's.

If you want to be entertained and you want to think, you'll enjoy this book.

Film and television actor Mark Feuerstein gives a confident, compelling reading of Buffa's fourth legal who-dun-it featuring Portland, Oregon based attorney Joseph Antonelli.

U.S. Senator Jeremy Fullerton is shot and killed while in his car in San Francisco. The night was, of course, dark and foggy. Prime suspect is a young black man, Jamaal Washington, who was wounded by police while apparently trying to escape the scene.

Fullerton was not just any senator - he was prime fodder for a presidential nomination. Politics, as we know, makes strange bedfellows - it also makes for suspenseful mystery novels. Because of the late senator's exalted position not a lawyer in San Fran wants to touch the case. Joe Antonelli does more than touch it after he is contacted by an older lawyer in the City by the Bay who wants to help the young defendant for reasons unknown.

The mystery gets murkier as someone who claims have dynamite information about the Senator's past meets a sudden death.

Buffa's forte is courtroom scenes, and Feuerstein delivers them impeccably.

- Gail Cooke

I could read Joseph Antonelli novels forever. I've finished them all. I liked them all, but I especially liked this one. I read the books out of order, but they were nonetheless enjoyable. I hope that DW Buffa has another novel ready to publish soon, because I can't get enough, and I'm done with everything. I liked this one a lot, partly because it takes place in San Francisco. But I also like the way he ties up things, and the way Antonelli seems to kick more butt in this one. I liked the courtroom dialog and the the way he writes about the process and logistics of a trial. Of course, courtroom and trial events are in all the novels, but I especially liked this one. This was the book I chose to be my first Kindle book. Good stuff all around.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW IS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY READ THE BOOK

I thought the premise was fascinating and held a lot of possibilities. But there were so many sloppy elements and dropped balls.

For example:
1. Why wasn't there a big argument in the courtroom about the angle of incidence at which the bullet struck the suspect's back? Which was it? Was he turning around, or was he running away? If he was turning around, the evidence of the bullet wound would probably have shown that his torso was nearly sideways to the policewoman; if he was running away, it was culpable to shoot him in the back, not to mention that she did not identify herself or tell him to halt. Once the question of a culpable police shooting was raised with any force, the possibility of a planted weapon (to cover up the inexperienced policewoman's improper use of force) would gain a footing.
2. Hence, in addition, why no question as to whether the weapon showed fresh damage from dropping onto the pavement?
3. Most egregious, why no discussion of forensic analysis of the suspect's hands and gloves? If he was guilty, either his hands or his gloves would have had to show powder residue.

I won't give examples, but I found it unbelievable again and again that attorneys for both the prosecution and defense were allowed to lead their percipient witnesses into long chains of speculations, opinions, heresay testimony--even testimony about the supposed thoughts and feelings of others--without objection from opposing counsel. I don't get this from an author who was a defense attorney for 10 years.