The Jury - Softcover

Martini, Steve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747266093 ISBN 13: 9780747266099

Publisher: Feature, 2001

Synopsis

Attorney Paul Madriani has reason to suspect he's representing a guilty man. Dr. David Crone, a respected medical researcher, is charged with the murder of a colleague: twenty-six-year-old Kalista Jordan, whose body washed up on a beach in San Diego Bay. Forensic evidence links her murder with material in Crone's garage. And Crone had motive: Kalista had accused him of sexual harassment, and she'd been angling for his job. When a key prosecution witness dies unexpectedly, leaving an incriminating note behind, it seems the case may be closed. But Madriani won't be satisfied of his client's innocence till he's established just who did murder Kalista Jordan...

About this title

Review:

So much of the action in this courtroom thriller happens outside the jury's purview that it makes one wonder if there's a touch of irony intended in the title. Paul Madriani, the lawyer-hero of five previous Martini novels set in San Francisco, has moved to San Diego for reasons that are never made clear. He's taken on the case of David Crone, a doctor involved in mapping the human genome, who's been charged with the murder of his colleague, a young African American research physician whose ambitions threatened Crone's career.

Crone seems to have had ample motivation for killing Kalista Jordan: witnesses have testified to the friction between them, and Crone himself seems less concerned about the capital murder charge than about what may be going on in his lab. When a key witness for the prosecution dies in what looks like a suicide and leaves a note confessing to the murder, Crone is freed. And in an O. Henry-like twist in the last chapter, a most unlikely killer emerges and threatens Madriani's life.

But even this doesn't do much to enliven this slow-moving novel. There's very little tension on the page or in the plot, and neither the narrative nor the characters offer the reader the kind of excitement found in Martini's previous novels. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Steve Martini, a former trial attorney, lives on the US West Coast with his wife and daughter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Feature
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0747266093
• ISBN 13: 9780747266099
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416