Judgment

November 15, 2018
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Juliana Brody, a married mother of two, gets into big trouble when a video of a one-night stand she had in Chicago is used in an attempt to blackmail her into ruling in favor of a company being sued for sex discrimination.The company, Wheelz, is a new, fast-growing competitor to Uber and Lyft. The plaintiff is a young female attorney who, fired after spurning the CEO's advances, is determined to expose Wheelz's oppressive frat-house antics. The case has drawn national attention in the #MeToo era. But as the highly regarded Brody discovers in desperately trying to save her job and marriage and protect her family--her bowels do things like "clench" quite a bit--there are dark forces invested in Wheelz: Russians. She can only hope the CIA has an answer. As with most of his bestsellers (The Switch, 2017, etc.), Finder works overtime to draw sympathy to a protagonist who creates her own problems with the dumb things she does and the obvious dangers she walks into. Adding to Brody's woes (and the novel's length) are the travails of her pot-smoking teenage son, whose state of mind does not improve after his father orders his guilty mother to move out.Coming from an author known for his intense plots, Finder's latest is a rather mild work of suspense--readable but not all that suspenseful or compelling.

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Starred review from December 1, 2018
Finder's uncanny ability to echo current events is showcased in his thrillers. For example, his previous novel, The Switch (2017), centered on a politician's laptop containing compromising emails (presumably, the novel was written before the Clinton email scandal broke). His latest is even more prescient. In it, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge, who hopes someday to be considered for the U.S. Supreme Court, is about to preside over a case involving corporate sexual harassment when her life is upended by one very bad slipup. Justice Juliana Brody has spent a lifetime making sure she makes all the right moves. Her one mistake, sleeping with an enormously attractive man at a law conference, tailspins into terror, as she finds her one-night-stand lover is a member of the defense team on her case and also learns she was the victim of an elaborate setup to blackmail her into doing the defense's bidding. At stake are Juliana's marriage, career, and survival. Watching Finder twist the screws on suspense to an almost unbearable level makes for an excruciatingly entertaining read. His stand-alone thrillers (12 in all) aren't just plot perfect; each one is character-driven. Not only the main character but also the supporting cast and even the walk-on characters are wonderfully believable. Finder also peppers the narrative with astute observations on a range of professions and criminal activities. Another stunner from a master.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2018

A Massachusetts Superior Court judge, Juliana Brody has an ill-considered one-night stand and later learns she's been set up (video and all), which threatens not just the big-news sexual discrimination case over which she is presiding but her career, her family, and her very life. With a five-city tour.

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