Customer Reviews

The Tenth Case

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Joseph Teller is a first time author with an experience in law enforcement and legal matters...and it shows in THE TENTH CASE. This courtroom drama is packed with detail and extremely drawn out. That's not a bad thing. If you enjoy the banter and the "objection" "sustained" kind of story...you'll be set.

Teller has written his PRESUMED INNOCENT. If you remember that book, we saw a crime in which evidence pointed VERY strongly to one person, and the book showed the case getting more and more grim on virtually every page. Then right at the very end, the "truth" was revealed and the reader was shocked. THE TENTH CASE tries to tread similar ground.

We meet attorney Harrison J. Walker...known to everyone as Jaywalker. He's apparently a brilliant defense attorney who almost never loses. Widely considered a great legal mind, a first-rate summation "artist" and also a loose cannon. In fact, in the first chapter, he's censured by a review board for his courtroom antics...but is given time to finish up his caseload first. He has ten cases, and the tenth is the murder trial of Samara Tannenbaum.

Samara stands accused of murdering her husband, the billionaire Barry Tannenbaum. Samara was a cocktail waitress/retired prostitute in Las Vegas, barely out of her teens, when Barry swept her away and made her his wife. Some years later, their marriage was a broken shell. The couple argued loudly just a few days after Samara took out a gigantic, short-term life insurance policy on her husband. And then Barry turns up stabbed to death, and the knife and other evidence is found in Samara's apartment. As more evidence piles up, we frankly can't see HOW Samara is not guilty. But naturally, we've read a million books like this and seen a million TV shows, so we know she can't be guilty. A surprise must be in store.

So it's a novel about our journey from complete despair over the case to a satisfying surprise ending. And Teller has concocted a pretty decent twist or two for the end. I'm sure his inspiration to write this book came first from an "ah ha" moment when he came up with the idea for the end...and then he worked backwards.

The book is breezy and easy to read. We're taken by the hand through the case, by being shown Jaywalker's thought-processes in extreme detail. While I appreciated the detail, a little less would have also allowed me to say the book was fast-paced. It was not as brisk as it should have been, given the casual style in which it was written. Teller has the makings of a good genre writer, and based on the sneak preview of his next book that is provided at the end of THE TENTH CASE, he clearly plans to make Jaywalker a recurring character.

I liked Jaywalker fairly well. Yes, he's a bit too brilliant and a bit too much of a maverick...but he's a clear thinker and we can't help but root for him. We like the characters he likes. But in my opinion, Teller made a big mistake by NOT presenting the book in the first person. He throws in so many asides directed right to the reader, that it becomes a bit jarring...a bit amateurish. If the book had been in the first person, then Jaywalker could have shared these tidbits and diversions with us in a very natural manner. Instead, we just feel that Teller is commenting on a variety of unimportant items and pulling us out of the story.

I still marginally recommend the book if you like courtroom intrigue and a decent mystery. I might even read the next Jaywalker novel when it arrives, just in the hopes that the nice plotting Teller is capable of is finally matched by the quality of the writing.

The book has an interesting premise. A defense lawyer with a reputation for bending the rules is being suspended from practising law for 3 years. Prior to the suspension taking effect, Jaywalker (the lawyer's nickname) is allowed to complete 10 final cases that he is already working on. While the first 9 are not complex, the last involves a young woman named Samara on trial for the murder of her husband, who happens to be considerable older (enough so to be her grandfather) and one of the wealthiest men in the United States. Thus people attribute the term "gold digger" to her - one who marries for money. To make matters worse, Samara, who is a former prostitute, has every piece of evidence stacked against her, despite her insistence of her innocence.

The question remains, then, can the renegade yet brilliant lawyer somehow win this impossible-to-win case? Also, if Samara hadn't killed her husband, who did and why frame her so well for it?

Style-wise, I enjoyed the book, presenting a somewhat unique format for the Q and A in the court room. More interestingly, Teller (the author) was himself a former DEA agent and defense lawyer - that old adage "write about what you know" shines through here, as Teller clearly knows his stuff. I also liked the way he explained more complicated legal points and terms in easy-to-understand ways.

As for the plot, it keeps wanting to smack me upside the head and say "Basic Instinct". Still, that was a movie that also left me wondering at the end and I like that - make the viewer, or reader in this case - do some active thinking, rather than just being a passive spectator. I knocked a star off the review to give it a "mere" 4 because I had a strong feeling about the identity of the killer about halfway through the book.

Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy legal dramas and good old "whodunnit"s!

THE TENTH CASE starts with two conceits that make the book seem less serious than it really is. First off, there's the protagonist's name: Jaywalker, which seems patently absurd. What self-respecting lawyer would willingly adopt the name of a petty crime? Secondly, there's Jaywalker's status, -- on the verge of suspension because of his habit of playing fast and loose with the rules of courtroom procedure (and because he was caught in flagrante with a VERY thankful client at the courthouse).

Facing a prolonged hiatus from his lifelong career, Jaywalker requests that he be allowed to finish out his open cases. The board limits him to ten, but it's a Scheherazade bargain -- the tenth case is a murder trial that will delay his suspension for months, perhaps years.

Though he will admit (to readers) that he isn't averse to playing tricks and grandstanding to win, his approach works. Where other defense attorneys trumpet 50% winning records, Jaywalker wins 90% of his cases--and it's because he is determined to win at all costs that he is successful, and in trouble.

The tenth case involves an Anna Nicole Smith-like defendant, a beautiful young woman who willingly embraces her origins as trailer trash. After escaping a childhood of abuse and destitution, she fell in love with and married one of the richest men on the planet, forty years her senior.

Eight years into the relationship, which is now more of a marriage of convenience, Barry Tannenbaum is murdered, and the only viable suspect is his widow, the alluring Samara, known as Sam.

It's obvious that Joseph Teller spent decades as a defense attorney. Parts of the novel read like a trial transcript, and Jaywalker (via Teller) reveals the inner workings of a murder trial with the gleeful panache of someone who has been there and done that.

Jaywalker is a delightfully flawed character, a widow with a strained relationship with his daughter and an addiction to Kalhua. He is obviously enamored of his final client, but strong enough to avoid falling into the trap of sleeping with her, perhaps.

The farther the trial proceeds, though, the less likely it seems that Jaywalker can pull off a miracle. He's not certain that his client is telling him the truth, and he desperately doesn't want to go out a loser.

Jaywalker could be a distant cousin of Michael Connelly's lawyer, Mickey Haller. It is because he is such an engaging character that the book works as well as it does. The ending gambit plays like something out of a Perry Mason episode, and strains the plot's credibility (quite honestly, the final reveal is a trainwreck that doesn't stand up to close scrutiny) but Teller has himself a winner with Jaywalker and I look forward to BRONX JUSTICE, the next book featuring his delightful protagonist.

Aspiring writers are often advised to "write what you know," and Joseph Teller has certainly followed that advice to the letter in The Tenth Case. This is a very straightforward courtroom procedural story that is crammed with details on how criminal trials work. It's mildly entertaining, but if you're looking for the next John Grisham, look elsewhere.

Teller's storytelling is extremely simplistic; this tale follows a uneventful linear path completely devoid of the twists and turns that one expects from good legal fiction. A young trophy wife is accused of murdering her billionaire husband; a maverick defense attorney, "Jaywalker," takes the case and does his best at the trial despite overwhelming evidence against his client. That's it. There are essentially three main characters (the attorney, the prosecutor, and the client) and none of them are developed particularly well. In the opening chapters, Teller tells us (repeatedly and at tedious length) that Jaywalker doesn't hesitate to break rules and engage in trickery to win acquittals, but we see almost none of this once the story finally gets rolling. The novel has the obligatory twist ending, but it makes almost no sense and will leave you saying, "Huh?"

However, if you're fascinated by the mechanics of the legal system and enjoy courtroom scenes with lots of realistic detail, you might enjoy this.

I am serving in Iraq now and bought this book at the PX. I loved it. As someone who just graduated law school and grew up with the law in my family I thought it got right in the world of a lawyer. I loved the little things like the quotes,"never ask a question you don't know an answer to" and "When you have the law pound the law. When you have the facts pound the facts and when you don't have the law and the facts, pound the table."

In my opinion I think the book caputures the hard life and tough job of a lawyer. It made me think of some of the things my father use to say and the cases he had as a lawyer.

I am buying Bronx Justice and having it delivered to me in Iraq. We have been passing the Tenth Case around and everyone else seems to love it.

In my humble opinion The Tenth Case by Joseph Teller is not a suspense thriller nor is it a true mystery. It is more a legal drama with various portions of the story written in the form of a trial transcript that reads like the dialog in the courtroom portion of a Law and Order episode.

The story is told from the perspective of criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, a man with the unlikely nickname of Jaywalker, who thru a series of circumstances and unlikely coincidences finds himself defending a twenty-something, gold digging sex-bomb who has been charged with murder. (Seems the D.A. is convinced that she had the motive, means and opportunity to carry out the murder of her billionaire sugar-daddy hubby.)

This is yet another look at a plot that has been mined so many times by other writers that most of the gold has been extracted and there is very little left in this vein. On the plus side, it is obvious the author knows his way around the judicial system and his Jaywalker is a somewhat amusing and likeable character.

Teller displays a certain skill in telling his story and his writing style will keep you reading even though the ultimate resolution to the story really strains credibility.

The Tenth Case, the debut novel by Joseph Teller, is an engaging legal thriller. The novel is nicely paced - with a few notable exceptions, particularly in some of the descriptions of legal procedure - with enough twists and turns to keep readers intrigued. Clearly, this is not new territory, the defense attorney with character issues; however, Harrison Walker AKA "Jaywalker" is engaging enough to keep readers wanting to learn more about him and his courtroom tactics. I was reminded of John Lescroart's excellent Dismas Hardy series, as well as Michael Connelly's Mickey Haller. Fans of William Lashner's Victor Carl series will also delight in this novel.

On a run of consecutive acquittals, Jaywalker runs into some trouble of his own, and is allowed to wrap up ten cases before serving a suspension for an act of "gratitude" with a client charged with prostitution. Among the ten cases, is a murder case in which the suspect allegedly killed her husband. The victim, an elderly billionaire... the suspect, a young former prostitute that is suspected of marrying for money.

There is not a ton of dialogue in this novel, this makes the book a little tedious to read in some sections. There is an unusual style in the book in which some of the courtroom testimony comes from reading the transcripts. Other than these nitpicking issues, the chapters are short and the book reads fast. Teller does a great job in introducing Jaywalker and setting the foundation for a promising series. I give the book four stars. If you like legal thrillers and/or murder mysteries, this book has something to offer you.

To me it's always about the ending. I can be reading along, enjoying a book immensely when WHAM!, the ending blows me out of the water for good or for bad--so ultimately, my opinion of a book is only as good as I like the ending. That said, I really liked this one.

The plot reads like a cliché of every legal thriller I've ever read, but somehow the way that Teller writes it - even when I think I know what's next, I'm a bit surprised by a little twist. His protagonist, Jaywalker, is known for his history of manipulating and defying the rules of the practice of law. This defense attorney is asked to represent a young wife, Samara, accused of murdering her elderly billionaire husband. The prosecutor has crossed all the "t's" and dotted all the "i's" in what should be a slam dunk case. A guilty verdict is all but assured, but Jaywalker believes in his client's innocence and uses everything he's got to try to get her acquitted. I really enjoyed the explanation of the various facets of the entire process of preparing and putting on the defense from the point of view of Jaywalker. The relationship between all the main characters was minimized and the courtroom drama was the main focus of the book.

Sure it's all pretty predictable, but I enjoyed the ride. Recommend: if you like legal thrillers, buy this one!

Joseph Teller, a former veteran criminal defense attorney, really knows the ropes -- and so does his protagonist ace lawyer Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker. When Jaywalker, whose acquittal rate is off the charts, is threatened with suspension for "bending the rules" -- including a sexual favor from a client in a courthouse stairwell -- the disciplinary committee allows him to complete ten cases before a three-year suspension. His biggest one -- "The Tenth Case" -- involves him defending 28-year-old Samara Moss, a sexy, fast woman with a checkered past accused of stabbing her billionaire husband to death. While Teller may go into a little too much detail on legal procedure and tricks of the trade, making the book (at 388 pages) a little longer than necessary, this information is very educational to anyone who has not been intimately involved in the legal community. Perhaps it should even be required reading in some law school and paralegal programs in criminal defense courses. Despite the seeming impossibility of Jaywalker's task in defending Samara, he is pit-bull dogged, disciplined, and unrelentless. To him, winning is everything. And along the way, he becomes infatuated with his client. The ending gives us a double-twist surprise that works. Teller has another novel, "Bronx Justice", coming out next year. Forget James Patterson and Scott Turrow. Teller is on a level at least equal to John Grisham.

There are times when I swear that I learn most of what I know from murder mysteries.

Like this one.

I've read three or four mysteries since this and critiqued the courtroom scenes from what Jaywalker (or Teller) says and does.

This alone wouldn't make the book really good, of course.

But it's funny, irreverent, with a plot that holds together through a second reading. I love the client, especially when she gives the prosecutor a lesson on terms used in Las Vegas regarding interpersonal relationships and dating.

Teller takes chances here that don't violate the "play fair with the reader" conventions but still come as a surprise.