Plea of Insanity [Mass Market Paperback]

Jilliane Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

In her third and most riveting novel, international bestselling author Jilliane Hoffman sweeps readers on a wild ride of murder and mayhem, confirming herself yet again as a major thriller-writing talent at the peak of her powers.

The prosecutor—Julia Vacanti. Young, ambitious, and facing a case that could launch her career. The defendant—David Marquette. A successful Miami surgeon and devoted family man. The victims— Marquette’s own wife and three small children. The plea—Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. The perfect father and model husband, David Marquette seemingly just snapped one night. Or did he? His experienced defense team claims paranoid delusions caused by schizophrenia drove him to slaughter his entire family.

But the state suspects Marquette’s insanity defense is being fabricated to disguise murders that were cold-blooded and calculated. If convicted, Marquette faces the death penalty. If found insane, he could walk free. To bring a killer to justice, Julia will have to journey into the mind of madness herself, embarking on a terrifying journey back into her own past—something she has struggled with for fifteen years. And this will lead her to confront a future so chilling, she’s not sure she will ever be able to face it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this gripping legal thriller from Hoffman (Retribution), Julia Vacanti, a 28-year-old Miami assistant state attorney, helps to prosecute David Marquette, a Miami surgeon accused of stabbing his wife and their two older children as well as smothering their baby in Coral Gables, Fla. David's plea of insanity finds the prosecution team working double time to prove he's just a clever psychopath faking schizophrenia to avoid Florida's death penalty. Meanwhile, the conflicted Julia obsesses about her schizophrenic brother, Andrew Citro, who was convicted of the fatal stabbings of their parents when she was 13. When Julia learns Andrew was committed to a center for the criminally insane in New York, she re-establishes contact, which results in some major courtoom drama. Hoffman's intriguing plot snakes around both cases as Julia questions her own mental health and a future only a nail-biting sequel might fully answer. Author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Julia Vacanti may seem to be an up-and-coming Florida prosecutor, but dig a little deeper, and it’s easy to see she’s living a lie—or at least half a lie, the half that pretends her parents weren’t murdered by her brother when she was a child. Then along comes the case of a lifetime: a prominent young doctor is accused of brutally murdering his wife and his three young children. The state claims the man is a monster. The defense claims he’s suffering from schizophrenia—the same illness, Julia realizes, that was behind her brother’s crime. Could the state, which will ask for the death penalty, be denying justice to a victim of mental illness? Courtroom dramatics are less the point here than in many legal thrillers. It’s Julia’s torment as she comes to terms with her family’s tragic history and Hoffman’s dissection of the legal and moral arguments surrounding the insanity plea that push things along—and the questions raised will linger long after the story ends. --Stephanie Zvirin --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Vanguard Press (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593155735
• ISBN-13: 978-1593155735
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting Legal, Psychological Thriller-Worth The Wait!!!!, July 29, 2009

By 

Sassafras "The Sassy Book Lover Extraordinaire" (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plea of Insanity (Hardcover)

Plea of Insanity has been a long time coming since Ms. Hoffman's two hits, Last Witness & Retribution, but believe me it was worth the wait. With this riveting tale of horrendous crimes, tense court room drama, deception, greed and pure evil, you will be reading until the wee hours of the night. Julia is sort of tragic, but she has backbone and she is a decent human being who wants and needs to do the right thing, and this very core of decency brings her to the brink of her own destruction. Will she win out over the deception and manipulation that's going on in the biggest courtroom drama since, maybe, OJ's trial? You will not want to miss a minute of this story as it unfolds, and you will be astounded by the ending.

With this third book, Ms. Hoffman has proven she has what it takes and she's right up there with some of the big names in legal, psychological thrillers. Personally, I can wait another couple of years for another of her books. She is now an auto-buy for me.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, August 31, 2007

By 

Mary A. Land (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Plea of Insanity (Hardcover)

I have never written a review, but this book needs one. It was GREAT and I don't understand why it hasn't been published in the US. I think I spent $34 + for it and it was worth much more. I've read her others and this is the best.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent legal thriller, April 11, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Plea of Insanity (Hardcover)

In Miami twenty-eight year old Miami assistant state attorney Julia Vacanti leads the prosecution team in the highly visible homicide case of surgeon David Marquette. The doctor stands trial in the stabbing deaths of his wife and their two older children, and in the smothering thing of their baby. The defense team admits he killed his family, but plea insanity due to schizophrenia.

While the prosecution tries to prove Marquette knew right from wrong and is just faking a mental illness to elude the death penalty, Julia thinks of her sibling Andrew Citro, who when she was a preadolescent and he a teen was convicted of killing their parents. He remains locked away in an asylum for the criminally insane in New York. Feeling the cases are similar although the prosecutor also ponders if Marquette is a clever serial killer who committed homicides long before his mass murder of his family, Julia contacts Andrew for the first time since he killed their parents.

This excellent legal thriller focuses on the title subject, but does so with a fabulous creative twist as the heroine wonders if schizophrenia is genetic. The gripping courtroom scenes are top rate, but it is the communication between the siblings for the first time in over a decade and a half that grabs the audience. The former brings legal tension and insight into the trial process; but the latter brings greater tension and insight into the fears of Julia. Jilliane Hoffman provides an excellent character driven tale with a profound look at a PLEA OF INSANITY.

Harriet Klausner