Death Row

June 16, 2003
An arresting opening sequence gets this latest crime thriller by bestselling Bernhardt (Criminal Intent, etc.) off to a running start, with Oklahoma lawyer Ben Kincaid back for another high velocity courtroom adventure. Seven years before the central events of the novel, a gruesome family massacre puts food flavorist Ray Goldman on death row, despite Kincaid's vigorous defense, on the strength of the incriminating testimony of the 15-year-old sole survivor, Erin Faulkner. Seven years later, Goldman has been given a 30-day reprieve from lethal injection, but time is running out. Simultaneously, a regretful Erin reappears in Kincaid's office, confessing that she was coerced by assertive DA Jack Bullock into making a positive ID in court. This development is just what the defense needs to free Goldman from his sentence, but before she can testify, Erin is found dead, an apparent suicide victim. Foul play is immediately suspected, and Kincaid and his detective buddy Mike Morelli spring into action, the latter hoping to redeem himself after an initial botched investigation. Kincaid and co-counselor Christina McCall desperately buy more time in court from spiteful Judge Derek and are spurred on when Erin's friend Sheila Knight winds up dead in what looks like another suicide. Some readers will be disappointed by Kincaid's minor role in the solution of the crime, but he returns to center stage in the courtroom finale. Bernhardt slips too often into flabby writing ("She had been a bit pudgy as a teenager, but judging by appearances, that baby fat was long gone") and plodding dialogue ("Did you see Erin on the day she... passed?"), but lively plotting should keep fans satisfied.

March 1, 2003
Too bad a witness who admitted to perjury has wound up dead; her admission could have saved Ben Kincaid's client from Death Row. Now the protagonist of best sellers like Criminal Intent must hunt down the real murderer.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2003
The veteran novelist follows up his fair-to-middling (mostly middling) " Criminal Intent" [BKL Jl 02]" "with this somewhat better Ben Kincaid thriller. Kincaid is a defense attorney whose clients tend to be underdogs who look guilty. His client this time certainly fits the mold: he's in jail, on death row, convicted of slaughtering almost an entire family, leaving alive only the 15-year-old girl whose testimony wound up putting him behind bars. Now, seven years later, the girl claims she perjured herself, but before her recantation can put the apparently innocent man back on the street, she's murdered. Ben must find her killer so he can spring his client from prison. If this premise sounds a mite shopworn, that's because it is. There's no denying that Bernhardt can write a tasty yarn, but his Kincaid novels have never been, well . . . haute cuisine. These are meat-and-potatoes mysteries: familiar characters, standard dialogue, and a sequence of fairly common twists and turns. Bernhardt sticks almost religiously to formula, but his formula is an agreeable one, offering easily digestible fare, and like so much comfort food, it has found a large and appreciative audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)