Prime Witness (Audio Cassette)

by Steve Martini (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
"The ugly marketplace of justice"--as one character terms the judicial process--is scrutinized with a riveting, you-are-there immediacy in the new legal procedural by the author of Compelling Evidence. When attorney Paul Madriani offers to assist a friend--the county's ailing district attorney, who subsequently dies--in investigating six brutal killings, he becomes entangled in a series of machinations that threaten his career and even his private life. Though Martini's plotting proves ingenious (the story is capped off by a nail-biting encounter in a darkened courtroom), the legal maneuvers themselves take center stage here. From the crime scene--the banks of California's Putah Creek--to a deceptively simple arrest to fascinating pre-trial scheming, Martini packs his novel with the quotidian details of the wheels of justice--and the numerous cogs therein. Madriani's first-person, present-tense narration invigorates the often intricate proceedings with first-rate wisecracks and one-liners. His character descriptions are by turns pithy and funny (frequently both): the prosecuting attorney "looks like nothing so much as Robert Duvall's incarnation of the Great Santini"; the county's female victim-witness coordinator is "the crime victim's answer to Don Corleone in drag . . . known as 'Attila the Hen.' " Prime is indeed the word for this involving read.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
YA-When Paul Madriani agrees to fill in temporarily as Special County Prosecutor, he has no idea that he will become involved in a serial murder case. The search for the "Putah Creek Killer" leads to the arrest of a college security guard, Andre Iganovich. Adrian Chambers, the defense counsel, has a shady professional past and a deep-seated dislike for Madriani, who was instrumental in the attorney's previous suspension from the bar association. As the evidence unfolds, discrepancies between the first two double murders and the third one become apparent, leading the prosecution to believe that a copy-cat murderer is on the loose. Threats against Madriani's family, legal posturing, the identification of a witness to the third set of murders, and a killer's desperation combine to produce a thrilling story.
Grace Baun, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audio Literature (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787121940
• ISBN-13: 978-0787121945
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,454,257 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 2 in The Paul Madriani Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prime Witness is Prime Entertainment, October 12, 2000

By	Jeff Edwards "RadioJeff" (Twin Falls, Idaho) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Prime Witness (A Paul Madriani Novel) (Paperback)

I am a bit puzzled at the negative reviews of this book. This is the one that started me on the path to becoming a Steve Martini fan. Granted this isn't his best courtroom thriller, but it is STILL above just about anything written by the incredibly over-rated John Grisham. But let's not judge this book based on other authors. The storyline is well-plotted, and very engrossing. The forensics used to trace the evidence to the so-called perp's is not only interesting, but very entertaining and informative as well. It has been many years since I picked up this novel, and I STILL have very fond memories of how much I enjoyed it. I think one of the best things about this book is how it kept you in the dark as to whether or not the 3rd murder was a copycat or not. Give it a shot, it's not literature, but it IS a fun read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much information, April 28, 2006

By	Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Prime Witness (A Paul Madriani Novel) (Paperback)

Reading this book is like being stuck at a table with a number of lawyers at a social event...they're alright on their own but, get them in a group, talking shop, and they're the most boring people possible to anyone outside that legal circle. A serial killer is loose in a university town, killing couples in a vile, ritualistic fashion, when the bodies of yet another couple are found, supposedly killed in the same way. Paul Madriani is working as the town's temporary Chief Prosecutor when Andre Iganovich, a Russian immigrant, working as a security guard at the University, is arrested and charged with the murders. The details of the investigation and eventual solving of the crime is, no doubt, absolutely right, but to anyone who doesn't work in criminal law, the legal minutiae is not only beyond the comprehension of the untrained mind, but is deadly dull into the bargain.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book up until the end, August 21, 2001

By	Robert Von Gerds "robgerds" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Prime Witness (A Paul Madriani Novel) (Paperback)

Prime Witness kept me glued to my seat for several evenings. For about 380 of the 400 pages, it is a real page turner. In the second book in the Paul Madriani series, our hero ends up being the District Attorney of Davenport county, a small rural county in which several serial murders have been committed. When the killer is caught, Madriani feels there is another murderer, probably a copycat at work. From there the book keeps a steady pace and the pages begin to turn themselves until about page 380. Then, all of a sudden Steve Martini must have either run out of steam, or maybe he just wanted to get the book over with. The end seems unbelievable and just comes too quickly. Still worth reading though.