Rating: 
Summary: I liked the author's style....
Review: I didn't expect to like this Hollywood murder/courtroom drama as much as I did. The material has been done in a thousand other books....famous film director marries younger star...she's killed in a dramatic fashion....he's framed/arrested/put on trial....good attorney is hired to represent him/figure out who actually did it/restore the director's reputation. What surprised me about this book was the author's literary craftsmanship. He employs a simple writing style to shed a harsh light on Hollywood glitz and glamour, showing what actually happens in the world of show business. There isn't a lot of action...and he doesn't overuse dialogue. Reading this book was like being in the presence of a very good storyteller who makes you want to sit a spell and listen to what he has to say, because you know it's going to be good and it's going to be worth your precious spare time. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: I liked the author's style....
Review: I didn't expect to like this Hollywood murder/courtroom drama as much as I did. The material has been done in a thousand other books....famous film director marries younger star...she's killed in a dramatic fashion....he's framed/arrested/put on trial....good attorney is hired to represent him/figure out who actually did it/restore the director's reputation. What surprised me about this book was the author's literary craftsmanship. He employs a simple writing style to shed a harsh light on Hollywood glitz and glamour, showing what actually happens in the world of show business. There isn't a lot of action...and he doesn't overuse dialogue. Reading this book was like being in the presence of a very good storyteller who makes you want to sit a spell and listen to what he has to say, because you know it's going to be good and it's going to be worth your precious spare time. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Another Hollywood Murder Mystery
Review: Defense attorney Joseph Antonelli continues making his way down the Pacific coast in the latest book of the series. The past book had Antonelli heading south from Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco, and now he is in Hollywood defending a famous director (and studio head) accused of murdering his movie star wife. A combination legal thriller and Hollywood-based melodrama, Buffa places Antonelli in a middle of recognizable Hollywood types drawn from real life, with elements of the O.J Simpson case thrown in. In a cute twist, the reader is made aware early that Antonelli will be a character in a big movie. Like a snake devouring its own tail the fictional murder story evolves into a fictional movie as the plot progresses. As usual Antonelli will have a close relationship with an attractive female character, and numerous clues will be dropped along the way to point the reader in one of several directions regarding the killer. Hopefully, Antonelli will not return to Hollywood, and return to accused murderers who engender more sympathy from the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: No Oscar for this "Star Witness"
Review: Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Buffa's previous four books, I was astonished at how disappointing this one was. The basic idea was intriguing, but neither the storytelling itself, the characterizations, the pacing, nor the language were anywhere near as sharp as in his previous books. Joseph Antonelli is a fascinating character, and one of the things that has always attracted me was his intellectual approach to the law. This is a man who has inherited an incredible library and who is clearly well educated, and in this book there were so many basic grammar and syntax errors that it's hard to imagine it was edited at all, let alone proofread! Everything about it bespoke a kind of writing fatigue, and I can only hope with his next book the author will have regained his previous edge.
Rating:
Summary: And the winner is....? The reader.
Review: I have read this author's other books and enjoyed them all. Star Witness is a different breed of cat than the others. It is not really a court room drama although a murder trial is one of the central venues. It is a murder mystery and even when the book is finished, you will be wondering about the identity of the murderer. It also is a commentary on the movie business and the rarified atmosphere that those who "make pictures" live in. Joseph Antonelli, criminal defense lawyer extrodonaire returns again as counsel and foil for Stanely Roth, a famous film producer, studio head and the accused murderer of his famous actress wife. The facts are not in his favor. His wife has been killed (her throat was cut) in their Hollywood mansion. He claims to have left for work very early and had slept in another bedroom so as not to disturb his wife and was unaware that she had been killed. Blood stained clotheing is found in his clohes hamper. The clothes are his. The blood is hers. There is no evidence that anyone other than the maid and Mr. Roth were on the premises during the time she was killed. Things seem pretty open and shut to the police who arrest him and charge him with murder. With that as the background, Buffa spins a very interesting story of Hollywood, its characters, its foibles and its fables. The courtroom work assumes a substancial amount of literary license as it relates to the manner in which the attorneys ask questions, but it is certainly more interesting than sticking to the real rules. It is a book which keeps moving, asks questions and leaves you wondering and thinking about it after it is over. Not a bad result.
Rating: 
Summary: great legal thriller
Review: She is a world famous movie star married to the director who gave her a break that turned her into an American icon. When she is found murdered in her swimming pool, a stocking around her neck and her throat slit to the bone, the husband calls famous defense attorney Joseph Antonelli because he thinks the police will arrest him for the crime of premeditated murder. Joseph meets his client Stanley Roth, a few minutes before the police arrest the director. Antonelli bails him out and agrees to defend him but there is no evidence that he can find that will exonerate his client. The only three people on the estate at the time of death were Stanley, the victim and the maid. Stanley's clothing in his hamper had his wife's blood on it and there is no evidence that Mary Margaret Flanders had any enemies. The trial is long, hard and nerve-wracking because for once Antonelli believes he is defending an innocent man. STAR WITNESS is a great legal thriller, one that takes readers into the heart of Hollywood where appearances are everything and motives seem murky. The reader see the toll a high visible murder trial takes out of a lawyer, who in this case at least, defends a client more interested in creating another movie, certain he will be found innocent. It is fascinating to watch how a prosecutor could make a defendant look guilty with purely circumstantial evidence. D.W. Buffa keeps readers engrossed in this fulfilling drama that ends in a way nobody could have predicted. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: great legal thriller
Review: She is a world famous movie star married to the director who gave her a break that turned her into an American icon. When she is found murdered in her swimming pool, a stocking around her neck and her throat slit to the bone, the husband calls famous defense attorney Joseph Antonelli because he thinks the police will arrest him for the crime of premeditated murder. Joseph meets his client Stanley Roth, a few minutes before the police arrest the director. Antonelli bails him out and agrees to defend him but there is no evidence that he can find that will exonerate his client. The only three people on the estate at the time of death were Stanley, the victim and the maid. Stanley's clothing in his hamper had his wife's blood on it and there is no evidence that Mary Margaret Flanders had any enemies. The trial is long, hard and nerve-wracking because for once Antonelli believes he is defending an innocent man. STAR WITNESS is a great legal thriller, one that takes readers into the heart of Hollywood where appearances are everything and motives seem murky. The reader see the toll a high visible murder trial takes out of a lawyer, who in this case at least, defends a client more interested in creating another movie, certain he will be found innocent. It is fascinating to watch how a prosecutor could make a defendant look guilty with purely circumstantial evidence. D.W. Buffa keeps readers engrossed in this fulfilling drama that ends in a way nobody could have predicted. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Solid Legal Thriller, Too Many Rants
Review: So what exactly is this book about? Is it about a gruesome murder? Is it about Hollywood? Is it about the cult of celebrity? Or is it about the master manipulation of a movie mogul to produce his "Citizen Kane"? Well, yes it is all these things. Here D.W. Buffa becomes a jack of all trades, bringing together a whole lot of sub-plots together to create a multi-faceted take on the legal thriller. And why he does a servicable job, as with most jacks of all trades, he really masters none, putting together a intrigiung, yet often rambling and hard to read who-done-it.
When movie mogel Stanley Roth''s beautiful wife, and star actress, is found brutally murdered, he calls our protagonist Joseph Antonelli, a gifted defense lawyer, only days before the police arrest him for the murder. Antonelli must now sort through the lies and motives of a multitude of star studded characters to find the truth. There is the victim's dead beat dad, now a media whore calling for justice, the lead detective with a script to sell, and Roth's power hungry partner with a big chip on their shoulder. On top of that all, Roth himself might just hold the secret to his freedom, yet seems unwilling to share with his bewildered attorney.
Peppered in the murder mystery Buffa gives his characters licensee to ramble on and on about movies, celebrity, philosophy, and a multitude of other topics often cluttering the story itself. Peel away these distractions and Buffa has created a pretty solid mystery with some fun twists and turns.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Legal Thriller, Too Many Rants
Review: So what exactly is this book about? Is it about a gruesome murder? Is it about Hollywood? Is it about the cult of celebrity? Or is it about the master manipulation of a movie mogul to produce his "Citizen Kane"? Well, yes it is all these things. Here D.W. Buffa becomes a jack of all trades, bringing together a whole lot of sub-plots together to create a multi-faceted take on the legal thriller. And why he does a servicable job, as with most jacks of all trades, he really masters none, putting together a intrigiung, yet often rambling and hard to read who-done-it.
When movie mogel Stanley Roth''s beautiful wife, and star actress, is found brutally murdered, he calls our protagonist Joseph Antonelli, a gifted defense lawyer, only days before the police arrest him for the murder. Antonelli must now sort through the lies and motives of a multitude of star studded characters to find the truth. There is the victim's dead beat dad, now a media whore calling for justice, the lead detective with a script to sell, and Roth's power hungry partner with a big chip on their shoulder. On top of that all, Roth himself might just hold the secret to his freedom, yet seems unwilling to share with his bewildered attorney.
Peppered in the murder mystery Buffa gives his characters licensee to ramble on and on about movies, celebrity, philosophy, and a multitude of other topics often cluttering the story itself. Peel away these distractions and Buffa has created a pretty solid mystery with some fun twists and turns.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic In The Lawyer/Thriller Genre
Review: This is one of the best novels of the law/courtroom/murder mystery thrillers I've read - and I read them all. The characters are so finely drawn, the writing itself so good, and the plot so engrossing that it just sweeps you along. A book that is very difficult to put down; you just have-to keep reading. Author Buffa is one of the very best at what he does.
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