The Hidden Man

Starred review from July 13, 2009
Edgar-winner Ellis (Line of Vision
) is off to an exhilarating start with this first in a series set in an unnamed Midwestern city featuring grief-stricken attorney Jason Kolarich, who blames himself for his wife and child's death in a car accident. Jason is shaken out of his emotional coma when a stranger called “Mr. Smith” hires him to defend an old friend, Sammy Cutler. About 26 years earlier, Sammy's two-year-old sister was kidnapped from her bedroom during the night. Suspicion centered on Griffin Perlini, a convicted sex offender who lived a few blocks away, but police could never prove that he took the child. Now Sammy is accused of killing Griffin, who he believes murdered his sister. Mr. Smith demands Jason get an acquittal for Sammy, conveniently supplying witnesses and a scapegoat for the case. Ellis avoids clichés in a multilayered legal thriller that depends on precise character studies, an original plot and a surprising but logical twist at the end. Author tour.

August 1, 2009
A buried crime bears bitter fruit 27 years later.

Audrey Cutler was two years old the night she was stolen from her bed. Her kidnapping left her mom a permanent emotional wreck. Its impact on Audrey's brother Sammy is harder to calculate. Is it the reason that so much of his ensuing life has been spent behind bars for one transgression or another? Attorney Jason Kolarich thinks it might be. Best friends as kids, Sammy and Jason have been out of touch for longer than Jason is comfortable remembering, and now they're reconnecting in an unforeseen, unsettling way. Sammy's in jail again for the murder of Griffin Perlini, the sex offender who was once accused of Audrey's kidnapping. Jason has been hired for the defense under bizarre circumstances. The man who turns up in Jason's office one day calling himself Mr. Smith makes it clear that money is in ample supply and that his interest in Sammy's acquittal is intense. But why? Exactly who is Mr. Smith? Is he the shadowy stand-in for someone who, like the Cutlers, has lost a child to a pedophile's perversion? None of these excellent questions will be answered in a way Jason could possibly have predicted.

Plotting with Christie-like care, Edgar winner Ellis (Eye of the Beholder, 2007, etc.) lifts the curtain on a promising new series.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 15, 2009
Jason and Sammy grew up together, best friends until high school; Jason went on to college and law school, while Sammy coasted after his baby sister was kidnapped and never found. Jason became a star at a top law firm but left to practice solo after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. Then the past comes back to haunt them both. Jason receives a $10,000 cash retainer from a mysterious "Mr. Smith" to defend Sammy, who is accused of murdering the man long ago suspected of kidnapping his sister. But he won't plead temporary insanity, which would allow the dead man's past into evidence, and Jason is frustrated. "Mr. Smith" has explicit ideas about how he wants the defense handled, and things start going awry when Jason deviates from the plan. VERDICT Edgar Award winner Ellis ("Eye of the Beholder") has created an involving character, a damaged lawyer who's not afraid to get his hands dirty, to build this new series around. Fans of Philip Margolin's thrillers (e.g., "The Associate"), which shares similar pacing, grit, and character development, albeit with more violence, will enjoy this. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 5/1/09.]Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
Fresh from serving as prosecutor in former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevichs impeachment trial, the Edgar-winning Ellis debuts a new series hero, lawyer Jason Kolarich. Hes a former college football star with a cynical wit and some of the instincts of a pit bull, but his career has been shattered by the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident. When his childhood best friend, Sammy Cutler, is charged with the murder of a child molester believed to have abducted Sammys baby sister two decades before, Jason must try to shelve his grief and defend his old friend. The Hidden Man is a stylish legal thriller, cleverly plotted and briskly told. Jason is deftly and fully developed, often through flashbacks that also moderate the pace even as they heighten suspense. Half a dozen other characters are also fully fleshed, and lesser players are effectively sketched in a paragraph. The dialogue is smart and edgy; insights into criminal law practice are salted throughout the narrative.A fine debut for an engaging series hero.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)