The Letter of the Law

September 4, 2000
Former NFL star and current attorney Green takes his fiction (Double Reverse, etc.) in a new direction with this rough-but-ready read, offering not his first legal thriller but his first novel to be set apart from the gridiron and the pigskin. Green's plot--hotshot female attorney gets accused killer off the hook, then learns he did it and is menaced in turn--feels as dated and clapped-together as a jalopy, but it runs fast, powered by crude narrative energy and carrying within its rickety frame a host of comfortably familiar characters. When Casey Jordan defends her smarmy former law professor, Eric Lipton, against charges that he slay-mutilated law student Marcia Sales (Lipton was seen fleeing the crime scene), she attacks the case with the same ambition that has swept her from a dusty Texas farm to the pinnacle of Austin legal and fine society; Casey even insinuates in court that the victim's father, Donald, killed his daughter out of jealousy. But seconds before the jury foreman announces, "Not Guilty," Lipton whispers to Casey that he did the deed. Is he joking? Apparently not, as evidence surfaces that he's a crazed serial killer. Character motivation isn't Green's forte: Casey is persuaded that Lipton is evil and that she should help the vengeful Sales p re (and the cops) track him down only after Sales kidnaps, binds and terrifies her to show her what his daughter went through. Casey's change of heart after such treatment defies credibility, as do the novel's over-the-top climax, which sounds loud echoes of Night of the Hunter, and the killer's persona, which is so cartoonish you expect his dialogue to appear in balloons. Other characters--particularly an aging cop and an over-the-hill FBI agent--are handled with more nuance. This novel wilts next to any Grisham or Baldacci, but for brisk airplane entertainment, it'll do fine. Agent, Esther Newberg. 150,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour; simultaneous Time Warner Audio.

September 1, 2000
Green (Double Reverse) scores big with a thriller that takes place in Texas and is peopled by well-developed characters. Casey Jordan, a rising star in the legal profession, discovers in traumatic ways the difference between justice as practiced in the courts and right and wrong in real life. Jordan helps clear Eric Lipton, a law professor at the University of Texas, of the charge of disemboweling and murdering Marcia Sales. An instant before the jury foreman reads the verdict, Lipton whispers his guilt to Jordan. After the trial, suspicion rests on Donald Sales, the victim's father. Distraught with grief, hating Lipton, and humiliated by Jordan's trial accusation of incest, Sales abducts Jordan to teach her some of the pain his daughter suffered. Guessing that Lipton is a serial killer, Police Sergeant Bob Bolinger enlists the help of the FBI. Humanizing Lipton's monstrousness would have given him more depth, but this is still highly recommended for general collections.--Michelle Foyt, Russell Lib., Middletown, CT

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2000
Green's thriller opens with two grisly murders, seemingly unrelated. The second killing, that of a female law student named Marcia Sales, becomes the prominent case. A respected law professor, Eric Lipton, is accused of the killing. Dissatisfied with the lawyer he initially chooses, he turns to Casey Jordan, a former student. Casey, a farm girl who has managed to escape her roots by making a name for herself as a lawyer and marrying into money, takes the case without hesitation, confident in both Lipton's assertions of innocence and her own ability to persuade the jury of his innocence, despite the evidence to the contrary. Casey is successful, but Lipton's whispered confession of guilt just before the jury reads his acquittal causes Casey to second-guess herself. Was his confession a sick joke, or has she helped set a killer free? When a similar killing occurs and suspicion falls on Donald Sales (father of the murdered Marcia Sales), Casey begins to investigate. When she finds that the killer has struck before and almost certainly will again, Casey must decide how far she is willing to bend the law to see justice done. Green keeps the pages turning, but the revelation of the killer early on takes some of the suspense from the narrative. Overall, it's a fun read for legal thriller fans. ((Reviewed July 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)