Louis Glasser goes from rags to riches and back again. As a very successful defense attorney, he handles the cases of drug dealers, pornographers, and the shady elements of society. His motivation to succeed is not justice but money. He finds himself the target of an investigation and learns that his long-time client has fingered him in something dirty. Glasser, while greedy and self-serving, somehow manages to be a compassionate man as well, and Siegel unfolds a straightforward story of his downfall. Along the way, Jason, Glasser's son, looks at his father with contempt, pity, and envy but also with love and a loyal belief in his innocence. Although this first novel is well written, there are questions left unanswered and subplots that float in and fizzle out. By the end there are no big moral lessons, no last-minute hero to save Glasser from prison. A melancholy tale; recommended for large collections.?Shirley Gibson Coleman, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., Mich.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Erik Burns
Robert Anthony Siegel's debut novel gets off to a smooth start: Lou Glasser, an overweight New York criminal lawyer, finds his life swiftly unwinding as an ungrateful client--a drug dealer named Brian Brianson--sets the Feds on him as part of a deal to save his own neck. Stung by Brianson's betrayal ... he is hounded out of business by the ham-handed and vindictive Federal investigation. But while the book's account of his downward spiral is fast, dramatic and wrenching, Glasser is then allowed to wander off into his own moral wilderness and never really finds his way out.... In All the Money in the World, Mr. Siegel was clearly aiming for something more ambitious and literary than the standard-issue legal thriller, but here he falls short. Despite some snappy dialogue and an interesting set of characters, the moving parts of Glasser's life never seem to operate in sync, and the handoff of the Glasser curse from father to son is ultimately unconvincing.
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