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Novel Verdicts [Hardcover]

Jon L. Breen (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

January 10, 2000 0810836742 978-0810836747 2nd Edition
The advent of Court TV and the increasing news coverage of high-profile trials have pushed legal proceedings to the forefront of public interest today. Jon L. Breen has answered a growing demand for information with a second edition of Novel Verdicts: A Guide to Courtroom Fiction, a critical bibliography of courtroom fiction.

This new edition not only updates old annotations, but explores the literary response to new areas of focus and development that have emerged in the law since 1984. The original 421 entries have been retained among the 790 in the present volume, and Breen's guide also highlights a number of specialists who have recently emerged, including John Grisham, Steve Martini, William Bernhardt, Paul Levine, and Richard North Patterson.

Annotations provide general information about the author and indicate the proportion of trial action included in each book. A critical bibliography for librarians, lawyers and courtroom enthusiasts alike, Novel Verdicts is a useful and easy-to-use reference tool that captures the changes in the law as depicted in courtroom fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, June 2000: In 1984, Jon Breen produced an annotated bibliography of courtroom fiction, Novel Verdicts, which was the first serious attempt to provide a guide to the best books about that most dramatic of human situations, the trial. Now he has expanded and updated that volume with this second edition, increasing the number of books listed and described from 421 entries to 790. Each listing includes the name of the author; the title; place; publisher and date of the first English and American editions; a symbol to designate the approximate amount of actual trial action; and a paragraph or more about the plot, the type of courtroom action depicted, and an evaluation of both the overall book and its effectiveness as courtroom fiction.

Breen, one of the fairest and most perceptive scholars of mystery fiction, is exceptionally well suited to make assessments about a book's overall worth, and his judgment appears to be nearly impeccable (which I suppose means we agree a lot). Novel Verdicts contains an enormous range of titles, from such modern practitioners as Scott Turow, Lisa Scottoline, John Grisham, Jay Brandon, J.P. Hailey (Parnell Hall), Stephen Greenleaf, and Steve Martini to the golden-age writers Erle Stanley Gardner (who has 86 entries) and Ellery Queen, as well as wonderful early practitioners like Arthur Train and Melville Davisson Post, who are still able to amaze with their brilliant, twisting plots. If you have any interest in this type of fiction--and it would be hard to imagine an aficionado of the mystery genre who doesn't because of the tension inherent in any good trial scene--this book is the most useful guide to the best of this demanding literary form. --Otto Penzler

From Booklist

The first edition of Breen's guide, published in 1984, annotated 421 examples of courtroom fiction. The new edition has almost 800 entries. All the earlier titles have been retained, and books by newer writers--including John Grisham, Steve Martini, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, and Scott Turow--have been added. The cut-off date is 1997.

Entries are arranged alphabetically by author. Besides standard bibliographic information, each entry includes a symbol indicating how much of the book's plot actually involves a trial (from less than a quarter to more than three-quarters, with a special designation for short stories) and a critical annotation. Most annotations are a paragraph in length (with some, such as that for Grisham's A Time to Kill, considerably longer) and focus on the effectiveness of the courtroom action. The first edition of the guide was praised for the excellence of Breen's annotations, and he is just as entertaining and informative here.

Following the entries are a general index, a "Cause of Action Index" (with index terms ranging from abortion to wrongful dismissal), and a "Jurisdiction Index," which lists entries by state within the U.S. or by country.

With the growth of this particular subgenre of mystery and detective fiction, Novel Verdicts seems much less specialized than it did when it first appeared more than 15 years ago, and libraries will find it a useful collection development and readers' advisory tool.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 296 pages
  • Publisher: Scarecrow Press; 2nd Edition edition (January 10, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0810836742
  • ISBN-13: 978-0810836747
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,466,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a superb reference guide for legal thrillers, July 14, 2002
By 
Narayan Radhakrishnan (Trivandrum, Kerala, India) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Novel Verdicts (Hardcover)
Novel Verdicts is a must reference guide for the legal thriller lover. Each book has been analyzed in detail, with a comprehensive index- by title, author and subject. A most comprehensive guide for legal thrillers. Myself being an ardent devotee of the genre and the Sr. Associate reviewer for legal thrillers and the author of A FICTION OF LAW, a bibliographic work on the popularity of the legal thriller genre through the masters of the genre- featuring 350 authors and 1500 books, let me say- this book is a must reference for the connoisseur of the legal thriller genre....
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