Alpha Legal Directory ^TM

-John Grisham's first book and his best book by far. While his next book, The Firm, was good, it pales by comparison to this novel and is totally different from the formulaic novels he pumped out thereafter. In this novel set in Clanton, Mississippi, a ten year old black girl is raped by two drunken locals. The father of the girl picks up a rifle and meets out his own justice. Jake Brigance, a young defense attorney, strives to defend the father in a hostile environment and becomes a target of the seething racism and hate that permeates the environment. But this book is more than the sum of its parts. The characters and milieu draw you in.  This book is modern literature. You must read this book.  PURCHASE: HARDCOVER; PAPERBACK; AUDIO; VIDEO; DVD. Grisham, John - Island Books - Index

-The author of the number-one bestsellers The Firm, The Pelican Brief and
The Client has written another spellbinding tale of legal intrigue sure to hit
bestseller lists this summer. Twenty-two years after the bombing deaths of
a civil rights activist's two sons, the Klansman on death row for their
murders is mysteriously aided in his last appeal by a young lawyer in a
major firm. But why? PURCHASE: HARDCOVER; PAPERBACK; AUDIO. Grisham, John - Island Books - Index

-The Firm catapulted Grisham into the ranks of this country's most popular
authors, spending 47 weeks on the New York Times hardcover bestseller
list and 18 weeks as number one in paperback. Now Grisham has crafted
another gripping tale of legal intrigue. A young boy is inadvertantly present
at the bizarre suicide of a New Orleans defense attorney on the eve of the
biggest trial of his career.  PURCHASE: HARDCOVER; PAPERBACK; AUDIO. Grisham, John - Island Books - Index

-Hard to believe, but there was a time when the word "lawyer" wasn't synonymous with "criminal," and the idea of a law firm controlled by the Mafia was an outlandish proposition. This intelligent, ensnaring story came out of nowhere--Oxford, Mississippi, where Grisham was a small-town lawyer--and quickly catapulted to the top of the bestseller list, with good reason. Mitch McDeere, the appealing hero, is a poor kid whose only assets are a first-class mind, a Harvard law degree, and a beautiful, loving wife. When a Memphis law firm makes him an offer he really can't refuse, he trades his old Nissan for a new BMW, his cramped apartment for a house in the best part of town, and puts in long hours finding tax shelters for Texans who'd rather pay a lawyer than the IRS. Nothing criminal about that. He'd be set for life, if only associates at the firm didn't have a funny habit of dying, and the FBI wasn't trying to get Mitch to turn his colleagues in. The tempo and pacing are brilliant, the thrills keep coming, and the finish has a wonderful ironic flourish. It's not hard to see why Grisham changed the genre permanently with this one, and few of his colleagues in a very crowded field come close to equaling him. PURCHASE: HARDCOVER; PAPERBACK; AUDIO; VIDEO; DVD. Grisham, John - Island Books - Index

- The Pelican Brief is a step up from The Client and a slight departure from the usual formula. Perhaps Grisham was challenged by having a female protaganist, Darby Shaw, a young law student. When two Supreme Court justices are killed, Darby speculates as to who has a motive to kill them in the form of a brief. Her law professor/mentor/lover believes she may be on to something and passes this brief on. The bad guys find out about the brief and want her and the brief eliminated. The cat and mouse game begins when Darby's lover is killed. She becomes embroiled in the usual Grisham "who can I trust" dilemna. Grisham's talent seems to be not in the story, but in the telling. In spite of this, Grisham makes fundamental mistakes, among them, leading us to believe that Darby's lover is the protaganist. When he kills the man off you feel cheated and there seems to be no dramatic payoff.  PURCHASE: HARDCOVER; PAPERBACK; AUDIO; VIDEO; DVD.  Grisham, John - Island Books - Index

- Mediocre book about a solo practitioner, Ben Kincaid, who is hired by a large company as their in-house counsel. He takes the job for the money, but soon it seems he may have been hired as a patsy. One of the lawyers in the firm ends up dead and Kincaid is given one week to clear himself. PURCHASE: PAPERBACK. Bernhardt, William - Ballantine Fiction - Index

- Another good book by Coughlin. This time a young, New York City attorney,
Jake Martin, gets involved in a will contest in a small, up state town. He is
seduced by the widow (notice a pattern here?), is fired by his firm, but is able to win the case on his own. The real surprise is that Coughlin could make a book about a will contest so compelling. PURCHASE: HARDCOVER; PAPERBACK; AUDIO;   SPANISH.   Coughlin, William J. - St. Martins Paperbacks - Index

- Good read about a lawyer whose ex-lover, Robin Harwell, comes back into his life to ask him to represent her stepdaughter, who is accused of murdering . . . . her own father! Robin seduces him, the stepdaughter seduces him and the ending is predictable but well developed. I believe it was just made into a movie. PURCHASE: PAPERBACK. Coughlin, William J. - St. Martins Paperbacks - Index

- Another book I can recommend, this time about a 48 year old attorney, Ted
Jaffe, at a conservative law firm. When he was a prosecutor, twelve years earlier, he convicted a man who killed the wealthy husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair. (All attorneys have sordid pasts and extensive sex lives - didn't you know that?) It turns out that the man didn't kill her husband and Jaffe is called upon to save the man from being executed for this crime. In so doing, he risks his job, his reputation, and his marriage. But who did kill the women's husband, and why? We find out in the final chapter during a compelling cross-examination (Actually we find out in the second to last chapter). PURCHASE: PAPERBACK.   Irving, Clifford - Dell Publishing - Index

- A nursery school teacher is accused of molesting some of her students. Her
attorney, Harry Hull, adopts a trial strategy that pits himself against the judge. The plot is reminiscent of the similar cases we have heard about in the news. The author explores both sides of the case and never takes a definitive position as to whether or not she actually committed the crimes. The focus of the story is more about how the community reacts to the charges than about solving the crime. Different, as far as legal thrillers go, but good. PURCHASE: PAPERBACK. Mehing, Harold - Jove Publications - Index

- In this sequel to "Prime Witness," former prosecutor Paul Madriani is now a prominent defense attorney. His boss, after being nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court, is found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. The accused, Talia Potter, was the victim's wife and Paul Madriani's ex-lover. (Where do they find the time?) A classic whodunit with a spellbinding conclusion. So far, I have enjoyed all of Martini's novels.  PURCHASE: PAPERBACK; AUDIO. Martini, Steve - Jove Publications - Index

When a handsome stranger walks into Joss Cole's one-woman law office on a sleepy island in Puget Sound and slaps down a hefty retainer to incorporate a fledgling electronics business, the burned-out ex-public defender has a hunch things aren't exactly as they seem. And when Dean Belden, this strange new client, comes back a few days later with a federal grand jury subpoena he swears he can't explain, she still doesn't tie it into the bizarre illness suffered by her other major clients, a group of commercial fishermen. Then Belden skips out on the feds and dies before her eyes in the fiery explosion of his float plane. Or does he? Within hours there are two attempts on Joss's life--clearly someone thinks she knows more than she's telling. Later, a nuclear fission expert shows up on the island tracking two missing tactical nuclear devices stolen from a Siberian storage facility, and the Geiger counter starts ticking. When Joss's fishermen start dying of what is clearly radioactive poisoning, the outlines of Belden's shadowy past get filled out in a tense thriller as topical as today's headlines. Steve Martini ties it all together with a fast-paced, well-plotted story of homegrown militia groups set up by America's enemies. He tosses in a hint of romance--just enough to show off Joss's vulnerable side without slowing down the action. PURCHASE: HARDCOVER; AUDIO.     Martini, Steve - Putnam Pub Group - Index

- Steve Martini is an exciting author of legal thrillers and courtroom dramas. In Prime Witness, we meet prosecutor Paul Madriani trying a capital case involving the serial killings know as the Putah Creek Murders. The defendant is a Russian immigrant, Iganovich, whose attorney, Adrian Chambers holds a grudge against Madriani for his part in a sting that left Chambers suspended from the practice of law for five years. The case against Iganovich is strong, but Madriani is haunted by the suspicion that he was not the only one responsible for the murders. PURCHASE: PAPERBACK; AUDIO. Martini, Steve - Jove Publications - Index