From the Grave

March 26, 2018
Implausibilities undermine this series kickoff from Edgar-finalist Brandon (Running with the Dead). During a trial, Edward Hall, a well-known Houston defense attorney, and Cynthia Miles, the prosecutor he’s trying a drug case against, help themselves to the cocaine in evidence before engaging in intercourse in the judge’s chambers. When these shenanigans become known, Edward covers for Cynthia and takes the rap for the evidence tampering. After two years in prison, the disbarred lawyer finds steady work as a salesman, until he gets a desperate call from his physician sister, Amy, who has been arrested for murdering her estranged husband. The prosecution is convinced of Amy’s guilt—she was found, bloodstained, next to the corpse—but despite his disbarment, Edward agrees to defend her, only to find that Cynthia, now a judge, will preside over the high-profile murder trial. No one in authority realizes that Edward no longer has a license to practice law as he seeks to prove his sister’s innocence. Brandon, a Texas criminal lawyer, knows how to ratchet up tension in the courtroom, but multiple contrivances don’t bode well for future entries.

January 1, 2020
Donald Willis, "the most hated man in Houston," is presumed guilty. Out of prison after being convicted of kidnapping, he looks the perfect fit for [attempting?] another kidnapping. This time the victim is Houston society belle Diana Greene, who tells quite a story. Donald grabbed her outside a drug store, she says, put a bag over her head, drove her to a deserted house, and held her for ransom. She escaped. Donald's luck bottoms: Diana is the sister of the Houston district attorney. All this is the starter motor for disbarred lawyer Edward Hall's attempt to get back in the game. It can happen, the DA says, if Hall agrees to defend Donald, implying that he'd be smart to lose. Instead, Hall puts up a ferocious fight and uncovers a possibly murderous scheme. The pace is brisk and the writing elegant: a cop is a short man "who made up for that by living at the gym." Fans of legal thrillers should give this priority.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2018
A fine, tense legal thriller with an offbeat plot. Edward Hall, Houston prosecuting attorney, spends time in jail for the damnedest reason: he's caught breaking into a druggie's cocaine stash. Upon his release, his sister, Amy, is arrested for murdering her estranged husband; too bad for her, the man made a video days before his death, saying, If I am found dead, it will be my wife who murdered me. Pretty ironclad. Edward, though he has no legal cred any more, undertakes Amy's defense. Interestingly, author Brandon, a practicing attorney, has the urge to tell us trade secrets, and these sections are as intriguing as the narrative. We learn that cops have a way of manipulating eyewitness accounts to jibe with their version. Defense attorneys like to put their second-best witness on first and their best witness on last. Juries secretly believe the person in the dock is guilty; that's why not guilty verdicts are in the minority. And those Perry Mason dramas that have the lawyer freeing the innocent by solving the crime himself? They're all bullshit, Edward tells Amy. Well, not always, as we learn.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)