Pardon the Ravens

December 15, 2014
Set in New York City in the early 1960s, this formulaic thriller from Hruska (Wrong Man Running) pits a cocky young lawyer against a sadistic mob boss. Alec Brno is only in his second year at top corporate law firm Kendall, Blake, Steel & Braddock, but he has impressed the partners enough to earn a spot on the team defending U.S. Safety Vault from charges of more than a billion dollars’ worth of fraud. Their defense is that the company itself was swindled, and suspicion falls on mob boss Phil Anwar as the money behind the con. Meanwhile, Phil’s addict wife, Carrie Madigan, flees from his abuse and is rescued by Alec, who immediately falls for this damsel in distress, even though she is a potential key witness in the case. Wise but gruff senior partners and scary but none-too-bright mob henchmen round out the cast. Readers will find few surprises along the way to the sweet ending.

January 1, 2015
From the author of the excellent legal thriller Wrong Man Running (2011) comes this engaging period piece in which a young, ambitious lawyer risks destroying his career, and his life, when he falls hard for a woman who could be a key witness in a high-profile case. Set in New York City in the 1960s, and told in the present tense, the story is vividly real and quite compelling. Lawyer Alec Brno is a very well drawn characterwe can really feel the conflicts raging within himand the story, which involves fraud on a massive scale and a notorious organized-crime boss, is convoluted and suspenseful. The period setting is re-created subtly; you know you're in another time more by what's missing (no cell phones, no laptops) than by any blatant attempt by the writer to say, Hey, it's the 1960s! Hruska really knows how to write; fans of legal-thriller stars like John Grisham, John Lescroart, William Lashner, and especially Scott Turow will want to add this fine novel to their must-read lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)