Customer Reviews

Life Sentence

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my first David Ellis book and I was not disappointed. It took me a few pages to get into it, but then I was hooked! Like most mystery readers, I try to figure out "whodunit" but only managed to predict part of the ending. Now that's a good read! I will be reading more of David Ellis.

Ellis' second novel is better than his first, and that was good. The novel is narrated by Jon Soliday, a longtime friend and now employee of Senator Grant Tully, son of retired Senator Tully. Twenty years ago in 1979, when he and Grant Tully were kids, they along with other juveniles (young men) were involved in a situation where a woman ended up dead.

Although Jon never had any specific recollection of what happened that night (drugs,sex,rock and roll), he becomes the focus of the investigation into the death of Gina Mason. Lawyers are hired, favors are called in, stories are constructed, magic is worked and the investigation into the death is closed. However, Jon Soliday never forgets and although he believes that he could not have been involved in her murder, there is so much about that night that he does not remember.

Present day, Soliday is helping Senator Grant Tully with his campaign bid for state governor. During the course of the campaign, Soliday is framed for the murder of another Tully aid. Soliday is arrested, charged and faces trial. He is represented by Bennett Carey who is a friend of sorts but much more. At the conclusion of the "trial" everyone comes out a loser.

It is hard to say more without spoiling this utterly magnificant, detailed and finely constructed piece of fiction. The surprises are endless, the writing is tight, the plot is well thought out and everything flows together in such a way that all the reader can say at the end is WOW!!!

This simply is one of the best books I ever read, and I read ALL the time. The story follows Jon Soliday, who is unjustly accused of murder. You know he's being set up but not by whom or why. What follows is a complex story that brings together tragic events of the past with the situation that is currently taking place. There is a series of twists and turns that keep you interested every second. I am rarely surprised at twists that occur at or near the end of the book, but this one took me totally off guard. Much of the story being told in the first person, the reader gets insight into the thoughts and feelings of Jon Soliday which helps you understand how some of the events were able to be accomplished. I believe that this adds significantly to the depth of the novel and the enjoyment of reading it. David Ellis is up there with Scott Turow and Richard North Patterson, which is the highest compliment I can think of.

Ellis is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I have read all of his work now over the last half a year. A couple of thematic undertones seem to stand out when you read an Ellis book. Most prevalent to my way of thinking is a moody aura of inevitable dread that suffuses his pages like a fog. This isn't a dread of suspense, but instead a dread the reader will have watching the characters actions unfold in a painfully slow uncoiling that leads to a grand shocking end. From one book to the next Ellis gives us characters that are not ultra clean or smooth. For instance, in Life Sentence, we are given a character with a dark past that has tied him into a station in life that is an albatross even if he is a successful person. I certainly would not want to be Jon Soliday or be burdened with his history.

The book unfolds at first in a series of flash backs to Solidays youth. It builds the friendship between Soliday and a state senator running for a higher office. Thrown in is a mysterious murder, blackmail of two sorts, shady histories and Soliday working out his demons and coming to grips with himself as a person. I am not a fan of flash backs and in my opinion, they take away a lot of the first couple hundred pages. This is Ellis' second book I believe and I can see him playing with different narrative devices as he grows as an author. It just doesn't work as well as the rest of the book which unfolds in real time and keeps up the steady and quickening pace.

Ellis is an author that is difficult to immerse yourself in. His world is dark, lonely, and cannibalistic. His saving grace is that he is also one of the best writers working today and I look forwards to decades of more Ellis thriller/mysteries. I hope he never stops searching for new directions to pan out in. For instance, each of his books tackles new ground plot wise, even if his lead characters are often very similar. This is my least favorite Ellis book, yet it is still very enjoyable. Ellis is great, I can't say more than that.

Many second novels are simply rewrites of the first novel. Edgar award winner David Ellis avoids that pitfall, and takes us on a curvy journey through the jungles of political maneuvering into a dramatic courtroom setting as one attorney attempts to prove that he has been framed. Although the clues were all there to sort out the person behind the frame, I totally missed them. If you pay more attention than I did, you should have fun with this book.

Jon Soliday is a specialized political operative: He knows the ins and outs of the election laws and helps the regular Democrats in a Chicago-like city eliminate their primary rivals and Republican opponents. But his real connection is to the power in the state senate, Grant Tully. Now, Tully is running for governor against a strong Republican who's ahead in the polls.

Soliday's life is coming unraveled. His wife recently left him. A good friend has just shot and killed a burglar in his home, and Soliday had to help get the police off his tail. And he's just found an explosive mistake in the filing papers for Tully's Republican opponent. Then, dispatched to see another political operative, Soliday ends up being framed for a murder he did not commit. And the bodies don't stop there!

Wishing to sweep the prosecution off-balance with a quick trial, the story develops at break-neck speed as the case culminates in some of the most revealing courtroom drama I have read in many years. You'll probably stay up late to finish this book, if you are like me.

Ultimately, the book is soiled by many sins of commission and omission that provide the catalyst for many of the events in the story. As a reader, I felt like my hands were dirty by the time I finished the book. I suppose I felt that way because the story's ending doesn't seem to come down hard enough on the wrongdoers. The ending suggests that ultimately we can do whatever we can get away with. I didn't care for that message.

As I finished the book, I thought about how each of us has a unique point of view about what's going on. I was reminded of how valuable it can be to ask others what they think is happening so that I can develop a better perspective.

As a law junkie, I love a good courtroom thriller! However, I am often disappointed by stories that are entirely too predictable. This was not one of them. David Ellis intertwines the past and present brilliantly, leading to a conclusion I never saw coming! This is possibly the best book I've read all year.

As a veteran reader of well done mysteries, this is among the best I've ever read! The Windy City-like political maneuvering was first rate, and all the characters were expertly done. More twists here than even Chubby Checker could devise! Oddly, I suspected the killer fairly early, but everything is fair for the reader. Obviously Mr. Ellis is up to the task of a power big city politcal mystery, with enough old secrets to keep everyone on their toes!

My feelings about "Life Sentence" are mixed. On the one hand, it's a great page-turner, the kind that keeps you in its grip well past midnight. (I turned the lights out at 12:30 two nights in a row!) On the other, it was a touch less satisfying than "Line of Vision": it almost felt like a first novel by a guy who wanted to take Scott Turow to a new level, rather than a confident second novel that breaks bold new ground.

And yet by the time you've finished, you're loving Ellis all over again for making you re-examine facts that seem to point in one direction but turn out to mean something else entirely.

So: buy Life Sentence and Line of Vision and decide for yourself which you prefer. If you like one, you'll certainly love the other (and both put Grisham and Turow to shame). I'm just not sure which of Ellis' books you'll prefer. Meanwhile, I'm already looking forward to novel number three!

After reading this novel, I was quickly doing my research on the Author to find more of the same. I want all his books now. Well written and the pace is relentless

This is the 3rd book I have read by this author. Many twists and turns and an orginal ending.This author is not afraid to take chances with his writing,and this time it works.I read one of his novels where he wrote the story in reverse order(In The Company Of Liars) , and that one did not work for me, This one did !!
David Ellis has talent !