The Arraignment

Rating:
Summary: Not the best one
Review: Don't you hate mystery books when about 100 pages from the end you figure out whodunit? That's exactly how it is with Steve Martini's "The Arraignment". This isn't a legal thriller, but rather a investigative Hardy Boys tale with many, many twists in the tale and generally, some weird, weird stuff popping up that, while making sense, requires the complete suspension of disbelief.

Martini an anvil-dropping author, which can slowly make you go crazy. He's so fond of writing something and then telling the reader what it means. For example, Martini will write an exchange very similar to the following:

"It is raining," Harry tells me. He's talking about the weather.

Read 300 pages of that and the reader will feel condescended to.

Tto make his thrillers more literary in value, he adds tons and tons of metaphors and similes that distract from his first person/present tense perspective.

Add on top of that, in this installment, Paul Madriani is so self-righteous, intelligent, and smug that he becomes absolutely insufferable. And oh yes, while Paul is traipsing around the jungles of Mexico, daughter Sarah is a complete afterthought, except for one misplaced paragraph towards the end. It's never a good sign when the reader is rooting for the hero of the novel to be dropped off the edge of a Mayan pyramid.

I've enjoyed Martini's books in the past, so this was quite the disappointment. "Compelling Evidence" and "Undue Influence" remain the most tightly plotted and well-paced of his novels.

Rating:
Summary: For Paul Madriani Fans - Probably A Better Movie Than Book
Review: If you are a Steve Martini - Paul Madriani fan, this latest book is worth your time but not up to his best work. If you are a new reader and are looking for legal mysteries that involve complicated cases and courtroom strategies, I would suggest that you read some of Martini's other books first. If you like action adventure with some legal twists, then you will enjoy this book and probably rate it four stars.

Nick Rush, friend and lawyer at a prestigious San Diego firm, approaches Paul Madriani to take on Gerald Metz, a client who supposedly poses a conflict of interest for Nick. After a conference with Metz, Paul declines and Metz and Nick are soon gunned down in front of the courthouse prior to Metz's grand jury testimony. Dana, Nick's trophy wife, requests that Paul investigate her insurance benefits, and interesting legal manueuvering ensues between Nick's employer, the insurance carrier, Dana, and Nick's former wife. This is vintage Paul Madriani (and Harry Hinds, his partner), clever and interesting. It also intoduces us to Adam Tolt, managing partner of Nick's firm whose apparent attempts to protect the firm's reputation and replace Nick lead to several interesting developments.

For various reasons including loyalty to his dead friend and inconsistencies regarding the events concerning Nick's death, Paul (with reluctant help from Harry) decides to supplement the police homicide investigation with his own efforts. Eventually additional violence ensues, and Paul and Adam follow the confusing trail of Metz and Nick and the other assorted unsavory individuals that Paul has unearthed to Mexico. While any of the individual incidences of violence and danger might be believable, the cumulative effect defies belief. Of course, almost nothing is what it appears, and misdirecton is rampant, both for the reader and the participants. Paul repeatedly and often unnecessarily puts himself in incredibly perilous situations, and often his escapes defy belief. This seems totally out of keeping with his character in previous books, especially given his concern for his role as sole parent for his daughter since the death of his wife. It almost seems as if Martini was writing this book with the goal of maximizing it's potential as a movie project and wanted to create additional complexity and action a la James Patterson.

While almost all the loose ends are tied together in the final chapter, and while the action and several clever plot twists kept me totally involved, my final reaction was one of disappointment. Steve Martini can undoubtedly write a good altough implausible action-adventure story, and the major elements of this story were well thought out. But I was in the end let down not just because it was not what I expected as a Paul Madriani fan, but because the result of the attempt to meld the two genres (legal mystery and action story) was less than the sum of the parts. It suffered from the conclusion being both unbelievable and complex, and my reaction upon finishing the book was disappointment even though in some ways justice and right prevailed.

Rating:
Summary: The Series Continues: The Arraignment by Steve Martini
Review: Those familiar with the character Paul Madriani from earlier novels know that he has one iron clad rule regarding the cases he takes. He never, ever takes cases with drug defendants. As a widower with a daughter, Sarah who is now fifteen, it simply isn't worth it to him. The complications and the greed involved in such cases could easily get a lawyer killed.

That is one of his first thoughts about a client that his old friend Nick Rush wants Paul to meet. Nick claims that he can't take the case because of a conflict of interest involving himself, the client, and Nick's law firm of Rocker, Dusha and Dewine. Nick has his hands full with the after effects of a divorce, a marriage to a trophy wife who wants it all, and interoffice politics at the law firm. Things aren't working out and Nick really needs Paul's help.

But when Paul meets the client, Gerald Metz, who is the target of a federal grand jury, things don't ring true. Metz is a general contractor and claims that he was working on a deal with two sons of a powerful Mexico businessman to bring heavy equipment down from San Diego to Southern Mexico to build a resort. This does not make sense to Paul considering the economics involved and the story gets worse as Metz explains that the deal never went through but he was paid incredible amounts of money in consulting fees. Fees paid far in excess of what would be normal and were not handled in the proper manner. To Paul, it looks like a case of money laundering and most likely necessary because it has something to do with the drug trade.

Paul refuses the case and his suspicions seem correct a short time later as Nick and Metz are gunned down on the steps of the courthouse in a drive by. Nick feels responsible in the death of his friend because he did not take the case. Driven by guilt he begins to investigate and eventually the trail leads to Mexico and a violent confrontation at the top of what is left of an ancient Mayan Temple Pyramid.

Overall, this is an enjoyable novel that is amazing slow to get going. The latest in the series featuring Paul Mandraini does not shed any new light on the character. Sarah is non-existent in this novel, mentioned only in passing, as are several other characters from earlier novels. Additionally, this novel is written in a more distant, objective style that the earlier ones in this series which may also relate to the much slower than normal start to the work.

Those that stick with this novel which could be read independent of the series, will find this 400 page novel well worth the effort. The last 100 pages, which lead to the violent confrontation at the top of a Mayan Pyramid Temple, are full of twists and turns and plenty of action. Those last 100 pages alone make this novel well worth reading and very hard to put down.