Sleuthing California defense counsel Paul Madriani lands one of his twistiest cases to date. His client, sport fisherman Jonah Hale, won $87 million in a lottery but lost his heart. Jonah's got custody of his eight-year-old grandkid Mandy, because his daughter Jessica is a cokehead party animal. Sprung from jail, Jessica demands cash. Jonah says no. So Jessica and Mandy disappear, with help from marital-rape-victim-turned-fanatical-activist Zolanda Suade. Suade's group, Vanishing Victims, specializes in thwarting courts and bashing rich males.

Madriani tries to reason with Suade, who almost pulls a gun on him, then taunts him with a press release: Suade's going public with Jessica's charge that Jonah molested Mandy. Madriani's girlfriend works in Child Protective Services, so he gets a tidbit or two of inside info--the charge is phony, but because CPS can't comment on cases, the smear will suffice to ignite a media firestorm. When Suade turns up dead, media interest does not subside. In court, circumstantial evidence forms a tightening noose around Jonah's neck, and Madriani starts wondering whether Jonah did kill Suade. Also, underworld types who may know Jessica and/or a Mexican drug lord start stalking Madriani, and more corpses pop up.

Martini, who covered the Manson trial, then became a lawyer and a bestselling novelist, is great at realistic, ingenious courtroom suspense, media-circus scenes, and dramatizing the impact of office politics on legal proceedings. His characters and prose are workmanlike but sturdy. Always grouped with lawyers-turned-writers Scott Turow and John Grisham, Martini thinks Turow's a better writer (in terms of character and dialogue), and Grisham's a natural-born storyteller who towers over all, but that he, Martini, is a better storyteller than Turow and a better writer than Grisham. The Attorney is evidence that he may be right. --Tim Appelo

From Publishers Weekly
The tireless Paul Madriani, Martini's popular lawyer/sleuth (The Judge; Compelling Evidence), barely has a chance to hang a shingle in San Diego--where he has moved to be closer to his lover, child advocate Susan McKay--before he is sucked into another engrossing court battle. When Madriani takes on elderly Jonah Hale's case, it seems at first he is dealing with a simple kidnapping. Hale's granddaughter, eight-year-old Amanda, under Hale's custody, has been whisked away by Zolanda Suade, who runs Vanishing Victims, an organization that purports to rescue kids from abusive situations. Now Suade is falsely accusing Hale of molestation to justify returning the girl to her mother--Hale's drug-addled, ex-con daughter, Jessica, who's never shown any interest in raising her child. Suade apparently has an ulterior motive: keeping Amanda in hiding until she can extort a hefty ransom from Hale, who recently won $87 million in the state lottery. Before Madriani, with Susan's expert assistance, can get far in his investigations, Suade is found shot to death, and Hale, who had plenty of motive to kill him, is arrested. Madriani is increasingly overmatched by a dogged prosecutor. Worse, those assisting Madriani in Hale's defense keep getting murdered, and Madriani may be next in line. Except for the occasional cliche (bodies lined up "like cordwood," minds "like steel traps"), Martini's prose shows marked improvement. Crisp dialogue and tart observations about legal maneuvering distinguish his courtroom scenes, and the new setting, San Diego, is colorfully rendered. It's a shame that the otherwise cleverly conceived plot falters in the homestretch with a poorly concealed twist that most readers will see coming well ahead of time. Mystery Guild main selection, Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Lottery winner Jonah Hale's drug-addicted daughter demands a big payoff when he won't relinquish the granddaughter she left in his care, then accuses him of sexual abuse when he refuses to deliver. A famed feminist activist helps spirit away mother and daughter and then gets bumped off. Sounds like another complicated case for Paul Madriani. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Paul Madriani, a hard hitting trial lawyer and his daughter have moved to San Diego and picked up a case from an old client, Jonah Hale, whose granddaughter was kidnapped by her drug-addict mother, Jessica and feminist Zolanda Suade. Following the trail of court and public documents and a multitude of leads, Madriani gets involved neck-deep in the Mexican drug trade, extortion and murder, made all the more exciting by Meloni's enthusiasm for mystery. Although he never loses the tension of the story, Meloni sometimes changes characters' accents in mid sentence. This lack of character continuity is particularly frustrating during the trial when Meloni gets swept up in the passion of the trial and the mystery's incredible conclusion. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Although Martini's not as well known as Turow and Grisham, his string of best-selling legal thrillers has him poised to join the A list. (John Lescroart, see review above, is similarly placed.) Martini's latest brings back California lawyer Paul Madriani, who's moved to San Diego to be near his lady love, Susan McKay, director of the city's Children's Protective Services. Helping abused kids is her passion, and Paul's latest case is right down her alley. Jonah Hale won $87 million in the state lottery, but his golden life turns sour when his drug-dealing, ex-convict daughter, Jessica, arrives on Jonah's doorstep with activist Zolanda Suade, threatening to reclaim her eight-year-old daughter from Jonah's custody if Jonah doesn't cough up some dough. Jonah refuses, and next thing he knows, Jessica has disappeared with the kid. Jonah hires Paul to find his granddaughter, but before Paul even begins the investigation, Suade is murdered, and Jonah has become the prime suspect. The evidence is damning, and even Paul begins to wonder if Jonah is guilty. But when Paul and Susan stumble on a tenuous clue that a Mexican drug lord may have been involved in Suade's murder, the case takes a surprising new turn and hurtles to a stunning climax. Tense courtroom drama, plenty of action, and a deviously twisted plot. Martini's hot streak continues. Emily Melton

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Paul Madriani is back--as both defense attorney and sleuth--in this riveting new legal thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of The Judge and Undue Influence.

"Riveting . . . a suspenseful tale, right up to the satisfying climax," wrote Publishers Weekly in praise of The Judge. "Legal thrillers don't get much better than this." Kirkus Reviews hailed Undue Influence as "the courtroom novel of the year." Now Martini delivers Paul Madriani's most challenging case yet: one pitting a drug-addicted mother against her daughter's newly rich grandfather in a contentious custody case that leads to criminal accusations and ultimately murder.

Having moved to San Diego to be closer to the woman in his life, Madriani takes on the case of Jonah Hale, an elderly man in terrible straits. As a result of their only child Jessica's longtime drug addiction, Jonah and his wife have been raising their eight-year-old granddaughter, Amanda. On the heels of Jonah's multimillion-dollar state lottery win, Jessica revives her interest in mothering. When Jonah won't deal--maternal rights for a mega-bucks payoff--Jessica plays dirty: she accuses the old man of having sexually abused her as a child and similarly abusing Amanda now.

Enter Zo Suade--a flamboyant, feminist activist with a penchant for making the objects of custody battles and their mother/plaintiffs "disappear." True to form, a week after Zo takes on Jessica's case, mother and daughter vanish. When Zo's body turns up, Jonah becomes the prime suspect. And Madriani is the man who can prove his innocence.

Filled with action in and out of court, rich in characters with motives obvious and subtle, The Attorney marks the much-anticipated return of Paul Madriani.

FROM THE CRITICS

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