Customer Reviews

The Majority Rules

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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.

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.

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.

The only contact most of us have with the judiciary is traffic court or selection for jury duty in our local circuit courts. In the latter case, whether we're selected to sit on a jury or only make the pool, the officers of the court treat us like royalty. Few of us have any personal experience with the highest courts in this land or contact otherwise with the judges who sit on those courts. Well, THE MAJORITY RULES is going to be your first exposure to the federal appeals court system and while this book is a novel it's also an eye-opening education. Mr. Sullivan is no gifted amateur or sometime lawschool graduate scribbling dramatic courtroom scenes, he's a former appeals court judge intimately familiar with the Washington scene where this novel is set and that insider knowledge breathes reality into every word of this story, from the opening line, worthy of Melville ("On the last day of his life, federal judge Max Rogers went to a party.") to the end. Mr. Sullivan's literary style is fast-moving, lean and hard, reminiscent of his early life as an Army Ranger and combat veteran, experiences which must've made him unique in the federal judiciary. We all know that everyone has his pecadilloes, even the protagonist of THE MAJORITY RULES, and that corruption can reach to the highest levels of public life, but with this book Judge Sullivan has given us a fast-paced, gritty, realistic look under the robes of the federal judiciary revealing that some of its honorable members have dirty underwear.

The Majority Rules is nothing if not formulaic. Fans of Grisham, Clancy, and Dan Brown's earlier works (Deception Point in particular -- back when DB was exposing conspiracy in the government before turning to conspiracy in the Church) will certainly dig Sullivan.

However, I know some people have criticized these types of books--Dan Brown's in particular--for the inaccuracy of many details: that won't be the case with Sullivan. He writes what he knows--the protagonist, Tim Quinn, has a life pretty similar to Sullivan's, and it's clear that the book is written by someone on the inside of these environments. Sullivan also manages to be informative without innundating the reader with industry terms or sounding like he's bragging about how smart he is. The plot moves too fast for you to get too bored with his descriptions of the NRO facilities and advances in spyware technology. I appreciated that.

It was, for the most part, a great read. I have a tendency to tote my latest book wherever I go, and TMR was easy to whip open and read a few pages of while in line for bagels, waiting for a meeting, or at a stoplight (jk on the last one... just wanted to see if you were paying attention).

My largest concern was that Sullivan seemed to sketch a fascinating outline of his characters but didn't flesh them out with nearly the same ardor as he did his descriptions of the novel's settings. Tim is a cool hero -- he's not perfect, and Sullivan nods to the conflict Tim feels between wanting to be on the inside of the good-old-boys court network (which is propogating all the corruption) and wanting to expose it all in the name of justice.

Vicky, Tim's partner-in-crime/former lover is also a great character, and admirably struggles with the inevitable conflict of interest the whole situation creates. (Side note: Vicky was my favorite character, but I think Sullivan did himself a bit of a disservice by making her so stereotypically drop-dead gorgeous--she struck me as more of a Hilary Swank beauty: attractive, but in an original, smart, and hard-hitting way. Describing her as a chesty blond was a bit *too* formulaic for my taste.)

Unfortunately, while Sullivan recognizes the conflicts within his characters, he doesn't delve into them nearly as deeply as he could with simply a few well-crafted conversations or internal monologues. Perhaps it would have made things a bit more "literary," and broken the thriller-nature of the book, but I think Sullivan's audience could have handled it. Frankly, I found myself liking Tim less at the end because I felt like he made the tough decisions too easily, and for the wrong reasons.

That being said, I did like this book--the adventurous feel, the characters that hinted at complexity, the vivid details of insider DC were extremely engaging. This is the beginning of a series, and I think the best compliment I can give Sullivan is that I'll definitely be reading the next one-- I look forward to seeing how Tim grows and changes.

This is a must read for the afficionado of modern thriller fiction. Once I picked this book up I could not put it down until I had finished it. Judge Sullivan's mystery grabs you from the first page and it continues from there. There is never a let down throughout the entire read.

With his first book Judge Sullivan has out-Grisham'd Grisham and out-Clancy'd Clancy. Sullivan's timing in exposing the sordid side of our judicial system could not have been better. Just read the recent headlines. His story would make a great movie in tune with the times.

If this is an example of the Judge's skill as a fiction writer, I am hooked, and I cannot wait for his next story. I assume there will be more.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel by Eugene Sullivan, a novel I feel will appeal to women as well as men. I found "The Majority Rules" to be wonderfully engaging, a script which I couldn't put down. I was in the midst of reading an historical novel when I learned of Majority Rules. However, I quickly set that book aside as I became more and more engrossed in Sullivan's theme of murder and intrigue at the pinnacle of government power.

While I really "felt part of" the inner workings of this plot, it was "Tim Quinn," the central character, whom I found most drawn to. Quinn is believable; he is not portrayed simply as some one- or even two-dimensional "hard as steel" former West Pointer whose proven combat toughness and gritty approach to enhancing his career won him a seat as one of the nation's highest court's judges. Sullivan presents Quinn with all of the "normal" warts - he was unfaithful to his wife; he is ambitious and fails to act when his good friend and sponsor to the judgeship he seeks, Chief Judge Harold Winston, inadvisedly boasts to him that he (Winston) has a cozy and possibly illegal relationship with the President; he truly agonizes over revealing to his wife Katy his infidelity. Yet as this web of problems develops, Quinn keeps his cool when it matters most: when he is forced to deal with matters of life and death to him and possibly his wife.

There were times when I felt Sullivan over-emphasized a point or repeated a theme, as though he were concerned we might not recall circumstances leading to a certain situation. I also wondered at first why Judge Winston would freely reveal to Quinn (whom he knew to be a straight-shooter and very ethical) that Winston had conspired with the President to ensure decisions favoring the President. That seemed a bit incredulous. However, as I read on, I saw that Winston's conceit, his conviction that he was unassailable due to his judicial power plus his need to feed on that power, led to his actions. In all, I was hooked by the very real way Sullivan developed and kept me immersed in his story. I was especially impressed knowing this was Sullivan's first novel. I look forward to the next episode.

Robert Read

Judge Sullivan adds credibility to the notion that good writers write what they know. He has incorporated his knowledge and experiences as a West Point graduate, an Army Ranger, a White House lawyer, and the General Counsel of the US Air Force and the NRO into this riveting novel about corruption in the Federal Judicial System.

The novel's prologue grabbed me and led me into a page-turning exercise. Indeed, I found the book hard to put down. Judge Sullivan has written a masterful work that resembles a primer on networking at the highest levels of justice and reveals both the benefits and costs of the trap of "go along and get along."

Don't miss The Majority Rules, and you will be in on the ground floor of Judge Sullivan's novel writing career that will probably center on his major character, Tim Quinn.

Judge Eugene Sullivan's novel, The Majority Rules, is a masterwork of realistic action, international intrigue, legal analysis, and political power plays.

Perhaps the most unique feature of this book is that it gives the reader a taste of what it is really like to be a lawyer on a day-to-day basis. One never sees this kind of thing in the movies, but this is what real lawyers do to "save the day" - creative legal analysis. The protagonist of Judge Sullivan's book (a judge, like the author) is a hero who can function on many levels, and whose adventures give the reader an insight into the world of law that few nonlawyers know about.

Tim Quinn is the newest judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. And he's finding out the hard way that he has to pay for his position in more ways than one. He turns to his gorgeous ex-girlfriend, federal prosecutor Vicky Hauser, for help in investigating a hidden scandal in the Court. But as they get drawn deeper into the mystery (and drawn together again), they realize that they are risking not only their professional careers and their personal privacy, but also their lives and the lives of their friends and family.

After graduating from West Point Military Academy, Judge Sullivan became one of the legendary U.S. Army Rangers in Vietnam and then progressed in his legal career until being appointed as a Federal Judge on one of the highest courts in the land. It might be tempting to equate author with protagonist, but this would be an error. What Judge Sullivan has done is draw upon his vast knowledge, both as a soldier and legal scholar, in order to breathe life into his hero, Tim Quinn. Judge Sullivan imbues Quinn with a keen sense of Anglo-American-style call-it-like-it-is justice. For example, he has Quinn define the law as being "fairness in action" and adhere to the principle that justice happens outside the courtroom, as well as inside it.

Being a lawyer myself, I found it enjoyable to read Quinn's thought processes as he sits down, rolls up his sleeves, and engages in legal analysis of cases, cases that neatly fit into the intricate plot of the novel. And I appreciated that the character's knowledge of United States law was not limited to the criminal context, but included complex commercial litigation cases as well. Quinn's wide-range of legal knowledge adds a credibility often lacking in books of this genre.

But Quinn is no mere armchair adventurer. He is always working hard to be four or five chess moves ahead of his adversaries, and always developing contingency plans. To augment the depth of the character, Judge Sullivan furnishes Quinn not only with a sometimes shady past, but also with a sometimes difficult present, since he suffers from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) flashbacks from the Vietnam War. However, the real strength of the novel is that Judge Sullivan has created a protagonist who stands in stark opposition to many people today - both factual and fictitious - who champion corruption and compromised principles as their daily modus operandi. Quinn is a modern day hero working from within the system - and from outside it, when it necessary - but always in the interests of justice.

This is the story of the trials and adventures of a stand-up guy doing real legal work in order to save the day. For this, among it's many other virtues, The Majority Rules is a legal thriller well worth reading.

The Majority Rules central character, Tim Quinn, is on pace to be the next Jack Ryan in action thrillers. The author creates a tremendous sense of realism in all of the characters and the intrigue that they find themselves in. This sense reality of can only leave the reader wondering not if this happens in today's world, but rather, how often does it occur and how easy can it be for anyone to be comprimised in this type of environment? The development of Quinn's character throughout the novel left me wanting more at the end. To the author, Eugene Sullivan, we're waiting for the next book to see where Tim Quinn's adventures will lead him. An excellent read!