In Her Defense

Rating:
Summary: Fresh and smart!
Review: "In Her Defense" is a fresh, smart, and fun approach to an old favorite: the murder mystery. There are twists and turns at every corner, keeping you guessing what the next page will bring. The more I got into it, the harder it was to put down. What a great book! I'm looking forward to more from Stephen Horn!

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: 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: In Her Defense
Review: A wonderful first book from an author with obvious promise. I loved the book and found the story to be original and creative and the characters well developed. I especially like Moira. She epitomizes how all x-wives should be and proved how important a good relationship is not only for her son but for everyone! There was great depth and intrigue to this story and I wanted more after I had finished the book. I am looking forward to his next book!

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: A ROYAL THRILLER
Review: COMPLETE WITH A KING A QUEEN, KNIGHTS AND JACKS THIS THRILLER HAS IT ALL. INSTINCTS AND WITS BATTLE BOTH IN AND OUT OF THE COURTROOM. LAWYER FRANK O'CONNELL WILL TAKE YOU ON AN AMAZING ROLLERCOASTER RIDE OF SECRETS AND JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE FIGURED IT OUT, YOU HAVEN'T, BUT YOU'LL ENJOY THE ANTICIPATION OF WHAT'S AROUND THE CORNER!!THERE'S EVEN A COLUMBO TYPE DETECTIVE AND A FAMILY STORY OUTSIDE "THE STORY".

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: 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: In Her Defense
Review: Frank O'Connell has lost his family, his name, and a partnership in his father-in-law's prestigious Washington firm. He now has to comb the cellblocks for clients. One day while he is down in the cellblocks talking to a client, a woman in the next cellblock notices Frank, and when she gets out of jail, she goes to him and hires him.

Ashley Bronson is the client and she is accused of killing Raymond Garvey, former Secretary of Commerce. In the beginning, it appears to Frank that the most difficult thing about the case is that Ashley confessed. He soon finds out that there is more to this case that meets the eye, and it started years before the murder.

This is Stephen Horn's first novel and what a great read it is. This is not just your typical mystery. There are Russian American spies involved. The courtroom scenes were as up and down as a roller coaster. This was a fast-paced legal thriller with a tale of betrayal and murder all wrapped up in one suspenseful story.

Kudos to Stephen Horn. I cannot wait for his second book.

Rating:
Summary: When Kennedy was killed, they didn't call it the Oswald case
Review: Great, great, opening. I heard at one point that the greatest opening line in a novel was "It was a dark and stormy night." I don't know if this is true. It sounds a little too subjective. But Stephen Horn does grab you on the first page.

I like Horn's protaganists, Frank O'Connell here and Phillip Barkley in "Gravity" because they are flawed. We like Spenser and Elvis Cole but after awhile, they are almost too good in both the physical and the metaphysical sense. But O'Connell is a mutt. Even we, the reader, who are supposed to feel sympathy for him, cluck our tongues when we find he walked away from the beautiful girl, the loving (Ay, Laddie, treated him like me own son from Kerry) father-in-law, the worshipping son, the million dollar income for . . . . we don't know why? Frank doesn't know why? Frank's seeing a therapist. Heck he should be seeing a whole staff of therapists. Electro Convulsive Therapy's not enough! Bring on the thorazine, Zoloff and the old standby, Prozac. . . . But then it gets interesting.

The unwinnable case. Leonidas at the Gates of Fire. Horatio at the Bridge. The beautiful victem. The grumpy assistant investigator. (See McSorley in the "Law of Gravity.") The Darth Vader government conspiracy. I haven't done this in 4 or 5 years but I couldn't put it down. Read it in one sitting far into the night. 5 stars. Could be 8. Read "The Law of Gravity" after. Larry Scantlebury