Prosecution [Paperback]

Dudley W. Buffa (Author), Kei Ninomiya (Translator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 397 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Publishing Group (1999)
• Language: Japanese
• ISBN-10: 4167527790
• ISBN-13: 978-4167527792
• ASIN: B001QHD4YK
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,781,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

DW Buffa was born in San Francisco and raised in the Bay Area. After graduation from Michigan State University, he studied under Leo Strauss, Joseph Cropsey and Hans J. Morgenthau at the University of Chicago where he earned both an M.A. and a Ph. D. in political science. He received his J.D. degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Buffa was a criminal defense attorney for 10 years and his seven Joseph Antonelli novels strive to reflect, from his own experience, what a courtroom lawyer does, the way he (or she) thinks, and the way he feels about what he does.

Buffa had been writing for pleasure for many years when Henry Holt and Co. decided to publish his first novel, The Defense, in 1997. The week it was published, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, the literary critic of the New York Times, called The Defense 'an accomplished first novel' which 'leaves you wanting to go back to the beginning and read it over again.'

The Defense was followed by The Prosecution and then The Judgment, which was one of the five books nominated in 2002 for the Edgar Award as best novel of the year. While the first three novels are set in Portland, the author's fourth novel, The Legacy, takes place in San Francisco and is as much a political as it is legal thriller. Star Witness tells the story of Stanley Roth, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, who is charged with murder of his famous movie star wife.

Breach of Trust, published in 2004, was considered by one critic as "one of the few books that fifty years from now will really matter." It offers readers a scintillating look at Washington politics. Buffa's seventh Joseph Antonelli novel, Trial by Fire, was released in 2005; in this new book, the focus is on the media and the role that television "Talking heads" increasingly play in very high profile criminal cases. Publishers Weekly says of Trial by Fire, "In this intelligent, gripping legal thriller...fast moving dialogue and fine sense of characterization keep the reader hanging on for the ride."

D.W. Buffa lives in Northern California. You can visit his Official Website at dwbuffa.net if you'd like to correspond with him through email.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Writer, July 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Prosecution: A Legal Thriller (Hardcover)

D. Buffa's book, "The Defense" was outstanding, as is "The Prosecution". I like his writing style. There's not an "F" word in every paragraph, and he seems not to waste a sentence. It's fiction, and the shortcomings I overlooked. This guy is a good writer, and has my attention.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A winning blend of cynicism and idealism, September 12, 2007

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Prosecution (Mass Market Paperback)

D. W. Buffa's 1997 debut, the critically acclaimed THE DEFENSE, introduced Joseph Antonelli, a brilliant, arrogant defense attorney driven to win at all costs. In that novel, Antonelli summed up his legal career by saying, "I never lost a case I should have one, and I won nearly all the cases I should have lost." Antonelli rode high until his mentor, Judge Leopold Rifkin, asked him to defend Johnny Morel, a loathsome man charged with raping his twelve-year-old stepdaughter. Although he knew Morel was unquestionably guilty, Antonelli nevertheless used his legal prowess to win an acquittal. Morel and his ex-wife were later killed, and Judge Rifkin was wrongfully accused of the murders. Emotionally involved in a case to an unprecedented degree, Antonelli suborned a witness to clear the Judge. Rifkin walked out of court a free man, but later committed suicide. Besides losing his best friend, Antonelli later discovered he had been manipulated from the start, a pawn in a much larger game.

As THE PROSECUTION begins, Antonelli has been retired from the practice of law for over a year. Depressed by his perceived failure to save Rifkin, he spends his days studying philosophical texts the Judge willed him, emerging from his self-imposed exile only to visit close friends like Judge Horace Woolner and his wife Alma. Antonelli reluctantly returns to the law when Woolner, reacting to evidence that assistant DA Marshall Goodwin may have hired a hitman to kill his wife, convinces him to act in the capacity of special prosecutor. Satisfying himself that Goodwin is guilty, Antonelli relentlessly pursues and secures a conviction against the apparently sociopathic assistant DA, reestablishing himself as a major player in his profession. Flushed with victory, Antonelli resumes his practice.

Things, however, are not as clear cut as they seem. First, Antonelli receives information that casts doubt on Goodwin's guilt. Then, he is distracted by a new case when Alma Woolner is accused of killing socialite Russell Gray, with whom she was rumored to be having an affair. As the stakes increase, Antonelli again finds himself at the center of intrigue, forced to question his own loyalty, morals, and profession; his search for the truth will either destroy him or set him free.

At 277 pages, THE PROSECUTION is somewhat lean, but still substantial. Having considered questions of law from one side of the courtroom in THE DEFENSE, Buffa turns the tables, using Antonelli's change in perspective to examine complex issues of law and morality. There's no skimping on drama, however--numerous plot twists keep Antonelli and readers guessing until the book's bittersweet finale.

Buffa's clean, straightforward prose, and "damn-the-torpedoes" style of storytelling combine to create a vivid tale with a high degree of immediacy. The story is also well served by Antonelli's first person narrtion. Because of his extreme candor, it's easy to sympathize with his personal and professional struggles. Although extraordinarily intelligent, he's human and makes mistakes. Although he usually wins, his victories have their costs.

Cynical and knowing, yet idealistic and hopeful, THE PROSECUTION poses many difficult questions. Unfortunately, as Joseph Antonelli's experiences ultimately reveal, there are no easy answers to these questions, just shades of the truth.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for a legal thriller, January 29, 2003

By 

death metal and black metal "death metal and ... (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prosecution (Mass Market Paperback)

This genre is generally braindead, but D.W. Buffa's "The Prosecution" makes the best of a bad hand by playing up the full intensity of courtroom drama, making the events and consequences of a criminal trial alive and threatening to the reader.

While throughout the book intensity is banked by the character's inherent stability and need for clear-cut mandates, during the trial sequences we see the traditional murder mystery hero trade dodging bullets and fisticuffs for outwitting a number of traps only obvious to those who spend time in courtrooms. In this the book comes alive.

The rest is fairly predictable, but executed with good editing (tight text) and reasonable expectation transferred to the reader. Characters outside the main three are mostly plastic stick figures who wander by and wave plot objects, and the frame-of-focus of the lead character limits scenery, background, setting to minimalist devices. Despite these genre-limitations, however, this book remains an entertaining read.

Warning: politics of racial pity afoot in choice of characters and dilemmas. It wasn't to my taste. Black people don't need pity, and white people don't need to get caught up in giving pity to others and being morosely self-critical.