The Deal

April 29, 1996
Weak characterizations, overblown prose and predictable plotting spoil Willet's debut, a legal thriller set in the rarefied financial and legal circles of greater Boston. The premise, though, is simple and sweet: as maverick attorney John Shepard closes the biggest deal in the history of Freer, Motley & Stone, no one notices that an error in the documents allows the recipient of the $840 million mortgage that supports the deal to pay it off with $840 thousand. The horrified partners learn that they may face hundreds of millions in malpractice liability. Soon the senior partner is dead, and Shepard is arrested for his murder. Two weeks from trial, Shepard fires his high-profile defense attorney and persuades his friend Ed Mulcahy, a litigator at Freer, to take the case. Ed does, and promptly loses his job. With little time to prepare, limited trial experience, a difficult client and Boston's legal and political establishment arrayed against him, Ed thus must win this case as much for himself as for his client. Willett fills the narrative with tired genre turns, such as how the stress of the trial draws Mulcahy and his assistant together romantically. His dialogue is equally cheap (a black youth: "He a strong muhfucker. Wipped yo' ass"; a P.I.: "Shepid? I heard aboudim"). Off the street and inside boardrooms and courtrooms, Willett's atmospherics seem authentic-he is himself a partner in a Boston law firm-but it's hard to accept the incredible confluences of incompetence and naivete from his cast of high-priced lawyers. An unsatisfying denouement proves a poor reward for those who hang on to see how the story's many loopholes are closed. Simultaneous Random AudioBook.

February 1, 1996
A legal thriller from a budding Scott Turow.

May 15, 1996
Proofreaders take heart: you've never overlooked a typo as big--$800 million big--as the boo-boo at the heart of this courtroom drama. That the case in the courtroom is not business litigation but a murder charge shows the intricate twists this story takes, which starts as a frantic closing of a real estate transaction. When the error is discovered to have been made on the computer of the law firm's senior partner, said partner is shortly found dead, pistol in hand. Murder or suicide? The victim's antagonist at the firm, foulmouthed John Shepard, lands in the dock, defended by Ed Mulcahy, trying his first criminal case after a career drafting estoppels and subordinated debentures. What he lacks in skill and polish he makes up in doggedness, though hindered by his client's cagey alibis for the night of the crime. Against the evidence, Mulcahy decides to argue frame-up, trying to ensnare another lawyer involved in the original deal. The cross-examination is tense, the witnesses get trapped, and the jury returns a verdict of . . . Willett, a debut novelist, impressively maintains the suspense and convincingly conveys courtroom atmosphere. ((Reviewed May 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)