Guardian of Lies

Defense Attorney Paul Madriani finds himself accused of involvement in the murder of a rare coin dealer. While representing a Costa Rican woman, also accused of the crime, he uncovers a decades-old conspiracy involving a Russian soldier, nuclear weapons, and a ruthless assassin. George Guidall effortlessly portrays a variety of characters and delivers Spanish and Russian accents as he weaves together the threads of the story. His calm tone and measured pace help build tension, and he delivers the dramatic and emotional passages equally well. Listeners will find it difficult to turn this off once they start. The ending suggests that there may be more to come from Martini and Madriani. S.S.R. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

May 11, 2009
Paul Madriani's chance encounter with 26-year-old Katia Solaz, a Costa Rican beauty, leads to a desperate race to avoid not only personal disaster but also a national one in Martini's sprawling 10th thriller to feature the Southern California defense attorney (after Shadow of Power
). Katia, who's living with creepy Emerson Pike, a man old enough to be her grandfather, in a dilapidated estate surrounded by an expensive security fence, decides to return home to Costa Rica. In her flight, she just misses running into the legendary assassin known as the Mexecutioner, who sneaks into Pike's house. The naïve Katia and well-meaning Madriani, who meet in a grocery store, provide a welcome human element amid the busy action involving escaped Guantánamo prisoners, a Colombian rebel base, a Mexican drug cartel and a plot to bring the war home to the Great Satan via a nuclear device. Tidbits like how the FBI can use cellphones as remote bugging devices add to the fun.