The Perfect Witness [Hardcover]

Barry Siegel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 1997

Murder. Courtroom suspense. Unforgettable characters. A California town drenched in fog and secrecy. Barry Siegel delivers one of the most original and exciting legal thrillers in years.

They used to be partners: Greg Monarch and Ira Sullivan, a couple of do-good lawyers in the central California town of La Graciosa. Ira, the charmer who glided through life. Greg, ever the searching idealist.

But it all went bad for Ira. Bad enough that he wakes up in jail one day staring at a death sentence for murder. And he can't remember if hes the killer. Only Greg Monarch has a prayer of getting him off--if he's willing to cross certain ethical lines.

Just how far should he go to save his former partner? As Greg Monarch wrestles with that question, he finds himself inexorably drawn into an ever-widening web of deceit and intrigue. The stakes are much higher then he first imagined; the forces gathering against Ira reach well beyond their coastal hamlet.

Layer by layer, Greg peels back a tissue of lies--and at the rotten core he comes to Sandy Polson. A self-possessed beauty with a shady past, Sandy is the kind of woman who can look you deep in the eyes and make you believe anything. Sandy says she was with Ira the night of the murder, says she saw the whole thing. The prosecution believes shes the perfect witness. But what if Monarch could persuade Sandy to tell the truth? Wouldnt Sandy then become the perfect witness for the defense?

A spellbinding story of crime and punishment, betrayal and revenge, Barry Siegel's new novel is a compelling journey into the heart of the courtroom and the human soul.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A beautifully crafted sense of place surrounds prizewinning journalist and nonfiction writer Barry Siegel's debut thriller in a cocoon of credibility, adding weight to a strong story. "If he closed his eyes, Jimmy almost could imagine himself back in the La Graciosa of old," Siegel writes about the fictional town on the central California coast. "Gone now was the cigar factory, the big wholesale meat market, the dairy, the Greyhound bus station... Henry's Hardware, where you could buy everything from kerosene lamps to washboards, was now an empty lot. The meat market was a dress store, the creamery a complex of sushi, cappuccino and moccasin shops. La Graciosa hadn't turned precious yet, but it was fighting the battle." In an area where the most important industry is no longer agriculture but nuclear energy, the town's own power structure has shifted. At its center is a dangerously ambitious district attorney, Dennis Taylor, who will do anything to win. Lawyer Greg Monarch, carving out a quiet living doing estates and wills, has worked for and against Taylor in the past, and has been badly burned on both sides. Now Taylor is about to nail Monarch's best friend and former law partner for murder, and Monarch has only a few faded defensive skills to fight what appears to be another losing battle. But as sharp and surprising as the book's resolution is, it's the image of the fading, changing town of La Graciosa that will stay in your memory.

From Library Journal

Greg Monarch's quiet life as a small-town lawyer is shattered when he is asked to defend his former partner, Ira Sullivan, on a murder charge. Unable to turn his back on an old friend, Greg reluctantly agrees to handle the case. However, he soon finds himself involved in both an ever-widening conspiracy and a moral dilemma. As Greg uncovers a complex web of government corruption and deceit, he is faced with the necessity of bending his own ethical standards and manipulating the star witness, a pathological liar, in order to free Ira. Siegel, author of the nonfiction A Death in White Bear Lake (LJ 6/15/90), offers a rather cynical but realistic view of the machinations behind the legal system combined with a collection of eccentric characters. The result is an intriguing blend of mystery, suspense, and courtroom drama that should appeal to readers of those genres. Recommended for most popular fiction collections.?Barbara E. Kemp, SUNY at Albany Libs.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 346 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (December 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345413075
• ISBN-13: 978-0345413079
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,882,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book, July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Perfect Witness (Mass Market Paperback)

A good book that starts out slow, but becomes much better as the book develops. I almost quit but I decided to finish it and I'm glad I did. If you like a good legal read then I would recommend The Perfect Witness.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Legal Thriller Reveals Layer Upon Layer of Suspence, January 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Perfect Witness (Hardcover)

Barry Siegel's legal thriller The Perfect Witness begins like a typical murder mystery, but develops into much more as Siegel begins to weave a complex plot that reveals all of the foibles of the legal system and the elusive search for the truth. The conclusion, that only by playing by the corrupt rules of the game can an innocent defendeant find relief are sobering. Siegel is very convincing in showing how things can go very wrong. The portrait of a power hungry prosecutor more concerned with getting a conviction that convicting the guilty party has a ring of truth. Siegel writes with the assurance of one who knows of what he speaks. He also does a good job at conveying a sense of place in the foggy California town. Personally, I didn't feel the characters were fully realized, but the complex plot structure and intriguing ethical issues carry the book. The Perfect Witness is a good read that got steadily more exciting as I went along. I found at the end, I couldn't put it down, and I was a bit disappointed when it was over. I highly recommend this book!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a miss, December 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Perfect Witness (Hardcover)

unlike the reader from Florida, i could not finish reading this book. It was too boring and I found the main characters uninteresting and obnoxious. I also disliked the way Siegel had to take three paragraphs to describe every little detail of every little thing. It made the story move at an excruciatingly slow pace. I don't think I will be reading any of his other stuff