Customer Reviews

Line of Vision

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Rarely do first novels have original, well-developed plots. Line of Vision has one of the best plots I have ever read in the legal thriller genre. If the character development were as strong as the plot, Line of Vision would be one of the great legal thrillers of all time. In the end, the book successfully transcends the amazing plot to raise fundamental questions about human motivation that will haunt you.

I was attracted to Line of Vision after learning that the book had received the Edgar award for best first novel. Since I had found many other fine writers this way, I was looking forward to the book. My high expectations were greatly exceeded. The plot complications reminded me of first-year classes in evidence in law school while the complexity of the issues addressed exceeded most law school articles I have read. Those who like their thrillers to be intellectually challenging will adore this book!

Marty Kalish is the book's protagonist and narrates the story. He is the exception to the rule that Mr. Ellis did not do enough character development. You will get to know Marty Kalish quite well, and will find yourself engaged by his struggle to avoid harm to those he loves and himself.

Marty is at that stage as an investment banker where he will soon become a partner . . . or work on in oblivion elsewhere. As a bachelor, he lives his work . . . until he meets the intriguing wife of a prominent surgeon. Marty offers her a ride home, and one thing leads to another. As the book opens, Marty is standing outside her house waiting for a weekly treat -- her naughty modeling performance before an undraped window while her husband is away operating. But something's wrong. She's not doing her thing. Instead, her husband is at home . . . and attacking her. Marty races to the rescue. Someone calls the police. When they arrive, they find a dazed wife and a missing husband in a living room filled with blood. Marty meanwhile is out using his wits and his brief law school experience to create a false trail that leads away from his beloved and himself. But he makes little errors based on his out-of-control emotions, and is soon under suspicion. The story shows how he deals with that suspicion and ingeniously unveils the answers to unexpected secrets that he uncovers along the way.

This book is not for the meek and mild. Marty does some pretty reprehensible things, and is mainly looking out for his own pleasure (and hide). But justice is done in the end, much like happened in the great noir thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s.

As I finished the book, I was reminded to try to step outside of my own perspective to see what is happening from the view points of others . . . if I want to understand what is really happening . . . rather than what I want to believe is happening.

Very nice job, Mr. Ellis!

This is everything that someone looking to read a legal thriller wants to see in a book. Great courtroom scenes, legal dueling behind the scenes, twists and turns in nearly every chapter, and an ending that will shock are all present here. When I was reading this book, I was consistently reminded of Scott Turow's classic, Presumed Innocent, though this book is not quite up to that standard. It's close though.

Some of the negative reviews here confuse me, since I really didn't see anything not to like in this novel. Yes, it is in first person, which can detract from some books, but I think that only adds to a novel like this. The main characters are well developed. The book flows well and the surprise ending is just crafty enough that it's difficult to guess but still believable. This writer will be very popular very quickly, so if you want to say that you were on the bandwagon before everyone else, read it now. Ellis is like John Grisham before he realized that he didn't have to try anymore and it shows here.

In this ingenious first novel, David Ellis tells the story in this psychological legal thriller through commentary by the main character, Marty Kalish, an investment banker. Kalish, an up-and-comer in a prestigious firm, tells us his story in real time and flashbacks of a love affair with married socialite Rachel Reinhardt. Early in the novel, we learn that Marty killed her surgeon husband who was in the process of beating Rachel. Or what did happen? Marty proceeds to build alibis, ditch evidence but is still arrested for the murder despite the lack of a body or any physical evidence connecting him to the murder scene.

Through the preparation for the trial, we learn more about Marty whose life was focused on succeeding in business to build up personal wealth. Except for a close relationship to his nephew, Marty has few redeeming relationships in his life. You do build a strange kinship with him in his struggle to build a defense and in his reactions to events with his former lover.

The most spellbinding part of this novel is that as it proceeds, Marty's exposition of what really happened keeps changing....This baffles both the defense lawyers and the reader and when the final solution unwinds in the last pages, you may be surprised. However unlike other surprise endings this one ends in a very satisfying way, with ends tied up very logically.

I thoroughly enjoyed this fast paced novel and look forward to future legal thrillers by Mr. Ellis.

This is a different kind of thriller that starts out fast, slows greatly in the middle, then picks up to a huge end. Marty is a person who seems to like to hang out on the outside of Rachel Rheinhart's house and look in the window. One night while doing this he witnesses Rachel's husband striking her and then tearing at her clothes. This causes him to break into the house, struggle with the husband and apparently kill him with a gun, then drag out his body and dispose of it and the gun.

What enfolds is that Marty apparently was involved with Rachel and was coming to her defense. He has no idea what she will tell the police and for a few weeks they think that the husband was kidnapped and then realize that the husband was probably murdered (since there is no ransom demand and they had found a lot of the husband's blood at the crime scene).

During this time, Marty sets up an alibi that puts him at work during the murder. Eventually the police suspect Marty of the murder and arrest him when he appears to have confessed to it. What follows if Marty's trial while a lot of apparent shady things seem to be happening with Marty and a special investigator he has hired.

The book is full of twists and turns throughout and you are never quite sure what happened until the very last page and even then there are some serious open questions. I liked the book a lot and would have given it five stars had not some of the explanations given not seemed so unbelievable.

It seems like there's an awful lot of lawyers turned authors writing legal thrillers right now, but David Ellis's LINE OF VISION is a wicked, heart-stopping original thriller that is impossible to put down.
Marty Kalish, a young investment banker, is accused of killing his lover's husband. Marty is an opportunist---devious and manipulative as he uses his friends and the legal system to suit his needs during his trial. You may not always like Marty, but there's something you have to admire about his deviousness. This is an extremely well-written novel, where things are not always what they seem, but Ellis manages to pull all the plot twists together by the final page. Looking for a really great page-turner? LINE OF VISION is it.

I typically read almost 100 books per year, most of them fiction. I picked this one up on a lark and am so glad I did. What a novel! From page one, I was enthralled in the story. I held my breath during the fresh approach that Ellis uses as a story-telling technique. We watch the action unfold through the eyes of the main character and we think we know what has happened. The murder takes place early on and we "see" it happen. But did we see everything? We aren't sure. In fact we aren't sure until the very last page of the book.

I was pleased to read a mystery/crime novel that wasn't all police procedural or all court-room drama. The story is fleshed out very nicely, and I found the characters to be multi-dimensional. There are several sub-plots to the story but they all relate to the main theme and serve to push the experience forward. And most importantly, I really cared what happened to the characters.

I am looking forward to Mr. Nellis' next work with great anticipation. It will be hard to top this one but it will be fun trying.

This is a very clever book that starts with, and is told from the point of view of, Marty Kalish who is outside his lover's house preparing for his weekly peepshow that she treats him to. Instead, he witnesses her husband physically abusing her and is compelled to take action to save her. The wash up of the opening scene is that the husband winds up dead and Marty disposes of the body and sets about trying to supply himself with an alibi.

The rest of the book is a terrific account of the resulting murder trial and the defense pit on for a man who looks, for all the world as if he's guilty.

I thought some of the more inspired parts of the book came from being made privy to Marty's thought processes as he set up his alibi. He kept assuring himself that everything would be alright and that he didn't have a thing to worry about. This was in stark contrast to reality when he would open his mouth and undo all of his carefully laid plans.

This book is brilliantly plotted and very cleverly set out. It casts doubt at every turn, even to the point of causing me to wonder about whether Marty was deluding himself about his relationship with Rachel, the star of his peepshow. The courtroom scenes were continually snappy and interesting which seems to be increasingly rare with legal thrillers. The fortune of the protagonist swings wildly from witness to witness which caused me to wonder how on earth it was going to end up.

Here is a book that deals with a defendant who is patently guilty, I mean, he as much as admits that to us very early on. It's just a question of finding out exactly what it is he's guilty of.

Line Of Visiom, an Edgar winner and David Ellis' first book, is well worth reading. The plot, which involves the confession by Marty Kalish, an investment banker, to killing his lover's husband and the trial to defend him is well-developed, the characters -- and especially the main character -- are very credible and three-dimemsional and the pace, once the trial begins, is faster than a speeding bullet. If that's not enough to generate interest in reading this strong first effort, it's filled with red herrings and lots of surprises. The only factor that keeps me from giving Line Of Vision a 5-star rating is that Ellis takes a bit too long to get to the trial portion of the book. Despite this minor criticism, Line of Vision is a well above average legal thriller and David Ellis is an author that deserves your attention. Enjoy!

Having now completed both "Life Sentence" & "Line of Vision" by David Ellis, I am waiting for the next installment by this gifted writer. Both books are exceptional reads. I could not put this one down & did not see the end coming until the last page. It is pure, uncut suspense sure to please those looking for a gripping page-turner!

I rate this novel 3.5 stars. Let me start by saying I really enjoyed reading this first effort by David Ellis and the courtroom scenes were riveting. Maybe the author set a pretty high standard which made it more disappointing for this reader when things went horribly wrong with the messy ending.

The biggest problem I had with this novel were the inconsistencies. One scene in particular highlights the highs and lows I found while reading. (SPOILER ALERT) The unidentified first person narrative that pops up during trial that tells us it is a 15 year old boy who discovered the identity of Rachels' secret lover. At first reading I was perplexed, what is this? Is this boy the character who has been providing the italicized narration in the novel? Well that would change things. We discover that this was a one time narrative by the 15 y.o. who obtained very explicit sexual video & audio of Rachel's tryst. How cleverly the author has laid the ground work for the unethical behavior of the private detective at the end. However, Rachel was extremely careful with Marty to make sure NO ONE ever knew about them so why so cavalier about Rudy?

We also find out that Marty's personal recollection at the very beginning of the book is an outright lie. No fair! The author uses a lie to lead us, unfairly, in other directions. Also, the author certainly knew his stuff when writing about the trial which confuses when the DA's office continues prosecution of Marty after he cleverly frames Rudy near the end of his own trial? This would not happen in the real world and the author should know this being an attorney himself by trade.

It turns into a big soap opera! The whole story is recapped for us by Marty just in case the reader didn't get it. But the worst infraction, in my view, was Marty's emotional reflection that having gone through this experience, it has taught him that you never know what a married woman is feeling and that one should be more empathic. What!?! His mother cheated on his saintly father throughout his childhood and his own affair with a married woman proved her to be manipulative and cruel. What part of using you for a sacrificial lamb to cover her other affair did Marty not understand? Or finding out that the real object of Rachel's exhibitionist strip tease was that other man and the fact she knew Marty was watching too only played into her own twisted plans? What happened in no way fits with the Hallmark moment as written.

Sure I had problems with this novel but still, it's better then most offerings out there. This author knows how to write a good story and I look forward to reading more from David Ellis.