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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Power Packed Drama, January 6, 2005
This review is from: The Majority Rules (Hardcover)
Former Federal Judge Eugene Sullivan has written a power-packed drama about the judicial system that is more than just another political thriller.
The Majority Rules is a gripping and intelligent tale about the inner workings and machinations of the black-robed men and women who are charged with upholding the law but sometimes fall prey to venal and political corruption in the nation's capital.. This exceptional debut novel moves non-stop from the highly-charged death of a sitting federal judge to the appointment of Tim Quinn as his replacement.
Quinn is likely to become America's newest literary icon - flawed, but not too much; just a touch more realistic than idealistic; tough but vulnerable. Quinn cannot believe his good fortune when he is suddenly wooed and appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He is welcomed on-board by his friend and patron, the chief judge, who promises Quinn future greatness for a rare, occasional favor.
Quinn is overawed at first with his new position, but soon learns that the ethics of some of his colleagues on the bench can be bought for money and other temptations. He quickly finds himself caught in a web of deceit, conspiracy and murder.
With charges and counter-charges soon to fly in the U.S. Senate over President Bush's judicial nominations, Judge Sullivan has written a timely and taut, insightful and compelling tale that ought to interest anyone interested in the good and the bad within our judicial system. It is an authentic, suspenseful -- and frightening.
Sullivan was nominated as a federal judge by President Reagan and spent the next 16 years as a federal court judge.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Washington's New Hero, March 3, 2005
This review is from: The Majority Rules (Hardcover)
Step aside Jack Ryan. Mystery novel devotees have a new hero on the Washington scene. Tim Quinn - West Point graduate; former Army Ranger and Vietnam vet; past General Council of one of the nation's super-secret spy agencies, and partner in a successful D.C. law firm - is introduced to us in The Majority Rules, a first novel by Judge Eugene Sullivan, whose resume closely parallels that of the character he has created.
An important, but secondary, player in the Washington power structure, Quinn enters the main stream when he is appointed to the second highest court in the land, the U.S. Court of Appeals, following the untimely and unseemly death of one of its sitting members. The new judge soon discovers, purely by accident, that his predecessor's death and the strange workings of the Court and its Chief Judge may be closely related. This discovery quickly embroils Quinn in a dark world of money, power and corruption, a world where the rule of majority may represent only the interests of an elite few. Simultaneously impelled and haunted by the youthful trials which shaped the man, Judge Quinn struggles to expose a deadly conspiracy, even as he fights to protect his reputation, his family and, perhaps, his own life.
When it comes to the Judicial Branch of government and the Washington power game, Judge Sullivan knows his subjects well. The same certainly can be said of his knowledge of those principals, personal traits and scars, whether visible or invisible, which mark graduates of the Military Academy and many veterans of the Vietnam War. Add this intimate knowledge to a well-constructed plot, a fast-paced narrative, an imaginative tale, and you have an impressive beginning for Judge Sullivan's latest career.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Inside Washington Thriller, August 28, 2005
This review is from: The Majority Rules (Hardcover)
Judge Gene Sullivan writes a thriller with the knowledge and insider information only a Federal Judge could know and write about. His novel, "Majority Rules", takes you inside the politics, the law firms, the Courtrooms and the Georgetown dinners, like only one experienced in such adventures can. As someone who spent twenty years practicing law in the Washington, DC area, and a Federal Judge, myself, I have read Judge Sullivan's novel and see the story come to life in real time and real events that could happen in the political climate along the Potomac. Chief Judge Harry Winston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is the slickest, highly placed villain to enrich a novel's pages in my experience of reading mysteries. Sullivan writes him as a believable character and as a twisted, manipulative Judge. Tim Quinn, as a lawyer and a new Judge on Harry Winston's court, has the backbone and ethics to take on Harry Winston and his corruption. With the help of his former lover and Justice Department lawyer, Vicky Hauser, Quinn and Hauser attack this corruption in one of the highest courts in the land. It is a mystery with many unexpected subplots and surprises. It is fast paced and well written. I recommend this book as an excellent adventure in behind the scenes courtroom capers.
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