Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Thriller With Multiple Twists
Review: I was unfamiliar with David Ellis, but before I was through with this book, I had purchased "Line of Vision", this books predecessor. Life Sentence revolves around the gubernatorial campaign of Grant Tully and his chief counsel Jon Soliday. Into this mix comes a blackmail letter, with hints of an event in these two men's lives twenty years prior. What follows is a story that includes murder, double cross and plot twists. I heartily recommend this book!
Rating: 
Summary: exciting legal thriller
Review: Jon Soliday serves as legal counsel to state Senator Grant Tully, who is running for governor in which the polls indicate his employer trailing against Langdon Trotter. However, Jon uncovers that Trotter submitted an invalid petition that, if revealed, would force the front runner out of the contest. Shockingly Tully tells Jon to not go public with the information because he says he fears a public backlash. Instead he prefers Jon let lawyer Dale Garrison use the fake petition to blackmail Trotter into throwing the race.Surprisingly, Jon receives an anonymous blackmail note that demands he pays $250,000 to keep quiet about "the secret that nobody knows". He wonders if someone knows about the incident in 1979 when he had sex with a woman who died not long afterward. Still Jon goes about his job and though he detests the deceitfulness, he meets with Garrison anyway. Not long after their discussion, someone kills Garrison leaving Jon as the prime suspect as the last known person to have seen the victim and he wondering about the link back to his previous worst nightmare from two decades ago. LIFE SENTENCE is an exciting legal thriller that provides so many twists and turns that readers will read in one sitting. The story line enables the audience to observe the relativity of information based on a person's LINE OF VISION as reasonably intelligent individuals interpret facts to fit their need and theory of the crime. The key charcaters including Jon are developed enough to enhance the who-done-it as it is the interpretation not just the facts that will make David Ellis' second legal thriller a fan favorite. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Framed!
Review: Many second novels are simply rewrites of the first novel. Edgar award winner David Ellis avoids that pitfall, and takes us on a curvy journey through the jungles of political maneuvering into a dramatic courtroom setting as one attorney attempts to prove that he has been framed. Although the clues were all there to sort out the person behind the frame, I totally missed them. If you pay more attention than I did, you should have fun with this book. Jon Soliday is a specialized political operative: He knows the ins and outs of the election laws and helps the regular Democrats in a Chicago-like city eliminate their primary rivals and Republican opponents. But his real connection is to the power in the state senate, Grant Tully. Now, Tully is running for governor against a strong Republican who's ahead in the polls. Soliday's life is coming unraveled. His wife recently left him. A good friend has just shot and killed a burglar in his home, and Soliday had to help get the police off his tail. And he's just found an explosive mistake in the filing papers for Tully's Republican opponent. Then, dispatched to see another political operative, Soliday ends up being framed for a murder he did not commit. And the bodies don't stop there! Wishing to sweep the prosecution off-balance with a quick trial, the story develops at break-neck speed as the case culminates in some of the most revealing courtroom drama I have read in many years. You'll probably stay up late to finish this book, if you are like me. Ultimately, the book is soiled by many sins of commission and omission that provide the catalyst for many of the events in the story. As a reader, I felt like my hands were dirty by the time I finished the book. I suppose I felt that way because the story's ending doesn't seem to come down hard enough on the wrongdoers. The ending suggests that ultimately we can do whatever we can get away with. I didn't care for that message. As I finished the book, I thought about how each of us has a unique point of view about what's going on. I was reminded of how valuable it can be to ask others what they think is happening so that I can develop a better perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Framed!
Review: Many second novels are simply rewrites of the first novel. Edgar award winner David Ellis avoids that pitfall, and takes us on a curvy journey through the jungles of political maneuvering into a dramatic courtroom setting as one attorney attempts to prove that he has been framed. Although the clues were all there to sort out the person behind the frame, I totally missed them. If you pay more attention than I did, you should have fun with this book. Jon Soliday is a specialized political operative: He knows the ins and outs of the election laws and helps the regular Democrats in a Chicago-like city eliminate their primary rivals and Republican opponents. But his real connection is to the power in the state senate, Grant Tully. Now, Tully is running for governor against a strong Republican who's ahead in the polls. Soliday's life is coming unraveled. His wife recently left him. A good friend has just shot and killed a burglar in his home, and Soliday had to help get the police off his tail. And he's just found an explosive mistake in the filing papers for Tully's Republican opponent. Then, dispatched to see another political operative, Soliday ends up being framed for a murder he did not commit. And the bodies don't stop there! Wishing to sweep the prosecution off-balance with a quick trial, the story develops at break-neck speed as the case culminates in some of the most revealing courtroom drama I have read in many years. You'll probably stay up late to finish this book, if you are like me. Ultimately, the book is soiled by many sins of commission and omission that provide the catalyst for many of the events in the story. As a reader, I felt like my hands were dirty by the time I finished the book. I suppose I felt that way because the story's ending doesn't seem to come down hard enough on the wrongdoers. The ending suggests that ultimately we can do whatever we can get away with. I didn't care for that message. As I finished the book, I thought about how each of us has a unique point of view about what's going on. I was reminded of how valuable it can be to ask others what they think is happening so that I can develop a better perspective.
Rating:
Summary: A rocking page-turner... but no "Line of Vision"
Review: My feelings about "Life Sentence" are mixed. On the one hand, it's a great page-turner, the kind that keeps you in its grip well past midnight. (I turned the lights out at 12:30 two nights in a row!) On the other, it was a touch less satisfying than "Line of Vision": it almost felt like a first novel by a guy who wanted to take Scott Turow to a new level, rather than a confident second novel that breaks bold new ground. And yet by the time you've finished, you're loving Ellis all over again for making you re-examine facts that seem to point in one direction but turn out to mean something else entirely. So: buy Life Sentence and Line of Vision and decide for yourself which you prefer. If you like one, you'll certainly love the other (and both put Grisham and Turow to shame). I'm just not sure which of Ellis' books you'll prefer. Meanwhile, I'm already looking forward to novel number three!
Rating:
Summary: A rocking page-turner... but no "Line of Vision"
Review: My feelings about "Life Sentence" are mixed. On the one hand, it's a great page-turner, the kind that keeps you in its grip well past midnight. (I turned the lights out at 12:30 two nights in a row!) On the other, it was a touch less satisfying than "Line of Vision": it almost felt like a first novel by a guy who wanted to take Scott Turow to a new level, rather than a confident second novel that breaks bold new ground. And yet by the time you've finished, you're loving Ellis all over again for making you re-examine facts that seem to point in one direction but turn out to mean something else entirely. So: buy Life Sentence and Line of Vision and decide for yourself which you prefer. If you like one, you'll certainly love the other (and both put Grisham and Turow to shame). I'm just not sure which of Ellis' books you'll prefer. Meanwhile, I'm already looking forward to novel number three!
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