Above the Law

When an illegal Mexican immigrant is shot by a Texas senator, his body cremated, and his wife hastily deported--attorney Casey Jordan must discover why. In doing so, she must fight local police, bureaucrats, and the senator and his minions. Bernadette Dunne's performance is masterful as she smoothly slips from character to character. Her portrayal of Jordan is particularly noteworthy--the listeners hangs on her every word and action. Dunne also captures the various Mexicans and the novel's minor characters as she gives the book a memorable personality. Her accents are realistic, and the tones she uses to highlight events add to the strength of the story, and its powerful conclusion. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

November 3, 2008
Last seen in bestseller Green's The Letter of the Law
(2000), feisty Dallas lawyer Casey Jordan must contend with illegal immigrants, abuse of power and pure unadulterated evil in this rousing legal thriller. When a U.S. senator from Texas known only as Chase, the kind of guy who frequents coke whores and kills puppies, suspects one of his undocumented workers, Elijandro “Ellie” Torres, of messing with his wife, Chase shoots Ellie and fakes the death as a hunting accident. Casey, who practices law out of an abandoned gas station, takes on the case of Ellie's widow, Isadora, and baby, Paquita, who are taken into custody by immigration officials and then deported. Casey's hunky love interest, PI Jose O'Brien, aids her in the ever-broadening investigation. Most of the characters are pretty much off-the-shelf, but Green throws in enough unexpected twists to distract readers from the plot's overly familiar aspects. Fans of Green's 12 previous novels will be perfectly satisfied.