Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: I read this novel today (riding back from The University of Philidelphia, where my son was playing football, while my wife was driving), and could not put it down til the end!
It was very realistic.
I am a trial lawyer, at Buffalo NY, who has tried murder cases in NY and US Courts.
I think this book is fabulous; because it captures the "feelings" of a murder trial, which is surely the "superbowl of criminal defense lawyers."
Indeed, defense lawyers have feelings and are not just "a head of cabbage, " as Oliver Wendell Holmes noted.
I love the risk of gambling at trial, but feel tormented by cases where clients confess their guilt, but there is perjury against them.
Defense lawyers have "feelings" about clients; and yes, they fight against prosecutorial misconduct, even when their clients are wrong.
They say: "If you can railroad the guilty, it's easier to railroad the innocent."
Although the author of this book is a former prosecutor (which I tend to detest), he has a uncommon grasp of the emotions of defense counsel; yes, even when the lawyer thinks his client is guilty.
This novel is an excellent portayal of the conundum defense counsel feel when prosecution witnesses are lying; but the lawyer wonders if the client should have taken a plea bargain anyway.
I hope the author gives me another novel to scrutinize.
Rating: 
Summary: Welcome Stephen Horn to the Courtroom Genre!
Review: "In Her Defense" is the first novel for Stephen Horn and if it's any indication of his talent this reader is very impatient to find his next book. Since the death of William J. Coughlin there's been a shortage of courtroom dramas with the wonderful dollop of humor that makes the legal mumbo jumbo even easier to enjoy. Frank O'Connell is a loveable, albeit, mixed up criminal defense attorney. He is just Irish enough to be fun and not so over the top as found in John Lescroart's novels. The action is fast and furious and you feel you're walking the streets each night with O'Connell as he attempts to sort out his demons. The client has admitted guilt, but the attorney refuses to plead her out. Horn fills the pages with interesting and very likeable characters that you come to care about and hope to meet again. Good to the last drop. Well done!! and give us more!
Rating:
Summary: What a Start!
Review: First novels are usually like first kisses: the expectation exceeds the performance. Not in this exceptional and exceptionally complex legal thriller by Stephen Horn, a former Justice Department lawyer.
With the complexity of John Grisham and the flip humor of Robert Parker, Horn has crafted a memorable first novel. His protagonist, Frank O'Connell, has reversed the usual trend, starting at the top and hitting the lawyer's rock bottom of seedy , appointed-lawyer cases. He has walked out the door on a brilliant career, a top-flight Washington, D.C. firm headed by his father-in-law and a marriage to the wonderful Moira which had produced a son he adores and sees too seldom. Suddenly in the door walks Ashley Bronson, a stunning heiress who has this little problem: She has just shot a man to death and wants Frank to defend her.
But Frank falls in love with her and pulls out all stops to defend her in a case so complex as too seem a tad unlikely. How it all works out, and how he navigates the minefield of being in love with two women while amidst a legal minefield makes for a great read.
Please, Mr. Horn, don't quit while you're ahead but instead give us another Frank O'Connell tour de force.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome...A Great First Novel!!
Review: This is a very good debut novel. It was really hard to put down. Mr Horn is definitely someone to watch. I've already added him to my "favorite authors" list. All the characters were interesting, especially Frank. He's the type of lawyer you'd want defending you. The investigating procedures were so enlightening. I kept wondering how everything was going to turn out and I was not disappointed. I can't believe some of the negative reviews this novel received. Mr Horn gave you everything you'd want in a legal procedural and more. He's an awesome writer. I hope there are more novels coming featuring Frank O'Conell and company. But for now, I highly recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Great read says the Author of $oft Money
Review: If this is Stephen Horn's debut work, I look forward to seeing more. This is a good legal thriller worthy of a Grisham comparison. I love the connection to the government as well as the espionage tie-ins. Frank O'Connell comes off as a protagonist that you both feel sorry for and despise at the same time. If you love a good legal thriller, and like to read a book that is hard to put down, this one is for you. I have grown weary of the Grisham copycat works flooding the market, however, I enjoyed this work, it was freash, new, cynical and had enough twists to keep me reading. I recommend this as a must read for fans of legal thrillers.
Rating:
Summary: A Trial Lawyer's Book.
Review: Not since John Grisham's early work A Time To Kill have I read a book that tells the tale from the standpoint of a real trial lawyer.We meet Frank O'Connell, a criminal lawyer with a doubtful future, largely the result of his own pride and arrogance. Handling CJA (Criminal Justice Act) cases in the DC Superior Court, Frank manages to insult a young corporate litigator assigned to appear for the celebrity defendant of the year, the lovely Ashley Bronson, painter and self-admitted killer. This chance meeting proves fateful as she appears in Frank's office to retain him. Only a trial lawyer would understand his response when she hands him a list of defense counsel and asks if he is as good as the people whose names are on the list. "Yes" he replies, never looking at the list. We learn that the prosecutor is pro, two Yale degrees, and three prosecutions so important that the courtroom artists sketch of him in action hang in his office. Frank fails to flinch, despite his modest circumstance. It is only then we learn of his own sterling credentials, the Manhattan DA's office, thirtysomething murder trials (all convicted) and the head of the white-collar crime section before moving to Washington to join his father-in-law's bigtime practice, only to leave as his marriage crumbled. What follows is the perspiration of trial practice, punctuated by sudden insights, and luck-both good and bad. Consumed by the desire to win, the need to win, Frank prepares himself for the battle. Like every good trial lawyer, he never gives up, he never commits to a strategy so completely he cannot revise or abandon it on a dime, he never loses faith in his ability to deliver a verdict in the courtroom (well almost never). I enjoyed it greatly.
Rating:
Summary: Guilty...of an excellent read!
Review: D.C. defense attorney Frank O'Connell had it all once...a wife and son that he adored, an enviable home, a partnership in the prestigious law firm of his powerful father-in-law. Unsatisfied with the privilege and comfort that life has dealt too easily to him, Frank abandons it all. He's reduced to representing indigent criminals, until he meets Ashley Bronson, a stunningly beautiful, wealthy socialite, who has confessed to the murder of her father's best friend. Romance, humor, snappy dialogue, and an underlying conspiracy theory that complicates what seems to be an open and shut case all serve to make IN HER DEFENSE a legal thriller that is a cut above the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Great first novel
Review: I bought this book with several others and was totally blown away. I would read and read and think I had the plot twists figured out and then, BAM, another surprise. However, I agree with an earlier review that Ashley could have been omitted, or at least had a much smaller part. She really didn't add much, except for Frank, of course. But other than that, I would highly recommend this book. I'd never heard of Stephen Horn before this, but I will certainly be on the lookout for any other books he writes in the future.
Rating:
Summary: The Start Of A Good Thing?
Review: An intriguing story of Frank O'Connell who has given up a lucrative law practice with his father-in-law and has lost his wife with young son because of pride and the desire to become a self-made success in criminal law. He is hired by a famous woman who has admitted killing a man she believes caused her father to commit suicide. O'Connell has a stategy to create reasonable doubt and discovers holes and inconsistencies in the prosecution's case as he investigates witnesses and runs background checks. He uncovers a sinister plot from the fifties that overshadows the crime his client is accused of committing. Interspersed with the main plot are storylines that describe the emotional pain and conflicts O'Connell finds within himself. He loves his son, is confused about his ex-wife and seems to have strong feelings toward his client. Horn does a masterful job of creating a legal thriller that delves into the emotional wreckage of an attorney who tries to right himself before he sinks and loses everything. The story kept my interest as the sinister elements are slowly revealed. The story is plausible and Horn ties it neatly together at the end. It is recommended for readers who enjoy multi-layered novels about more than the law. Hopefully, this is the start of a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Simply excellent!
Review: There are many bad books by lawyers about lawyers. They are short of a convincing or unusual story, interesting characters, a good build up and a convincing ending: just like a lot of litigation! This book restored my flagging faith in the genre. It was everything so many of the rest are not. My only reservations were (a) the lawyer still had a vestige of idealism after several years in the profession and (b) despite the fact that he had never really met her before she hired him (and was facing an uphill struggle against conviction), he never once asks her for payment of fees in advance. I hope we see a follow up soon.
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