The Choice

Francis X. Galvin, a successful attorney, must choose between his job and his conscience when he is assigned to defend a major pharmaceutical company whose miracle drug is causing birth defects

Reed's marvelous sequel to The Verdict puts attorney Frank Galvin on the horns of a dilemma. Tina Alvarez, a lawyer from downtrodden Fall River, Mass., asks Galvin for help in suing an English pharmaceutical company whose miraculous heart medicine, she alleges, has caused birth defects in a number of Portuguese-American children. Galvin, now working for a Boston Brahmin firm, agrees to take the case until he learns that his own firm represents the company in question. Although he is assigned the task of defending it when Alvarez proceeds with her litigation, Galvin remains spiritually tied to the opposition's case, especially as he has successfully urged Alvarez to enlist the help of his mentor, Moe Katz. Ethics turn dangerously murky when Galvin's colleague alters a legal agreement to make it appear as if the English company does not have full authority over the U.S. concern that markets the drug stateside, with the result that Alvarez and Katz have to sue in England, where liability laws tend to favor defendants. Galvin is furious when he discovers the alteration, and is further dismayed to learn that the man who patented the heart drug had been aware of its risks. A series of ostensibly unrelated murders forces Galvin to reconsider the morality of his defense. Ingenious plot twists build to a memorable and gripping resolution.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Francis X. Galvin, the down-at-the-heels lawyer who so memorably took on the establishment in The Verdict (1980), has become part of the establishment now: he's about to land a partnership in a top Boston firm when fledgling attorney Antonia Alvarez asks him to help prosecute a suit against Gammett Industries, whose miracle drug for heart disease, Lyosin, has produced birth defects in the children of her Portuguese clients. Not only is Galvin obliged to turn down the case, since his firm already represents Gammett, but he's forced to defend the suit against Tina and the allies he's rounded up for her, including his old partner, Moe Katz. There's no mystery about guilt: Reed reveals early on that Chip Hovington, son of Galvin's boss, has advised Universal, Gammett's multinational parent corporation, to backdate changes in Gammett's incorporation papers to shield itself from an American lawsuit, and that Sabrina Bok-Sahn, the brainy Burmese whose family's research is behind Lyosin, has suppressed evidence dating back to 1902 of the side-effects of the drug's active ingredient. But suspense mounts as we watch Galvin maneuver within his fraternity of well- tailored sharks for advantages he doesn't think Gammett deserves, even as he gradually realizes that key witnesses--the letter carrier who allowed Universal to avoid the serving of legal documents, the down- home lawyer who tried to blackmail Universal into a rich retirement, and finally repentant Sabrina herself--are getting killed, and he's the logical next victim of his own client's desperate greed. Not even a massively predictable finale can spoil what may be the best novel of legal infighting ever. Eat your heart out, Perry Mason. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Frank Galvin is at the peak of his legal career with a blue-chip Boston law firm. As chronicled in The Verdict ( LJ 5/15/80), he has risen to the height of Boston's legal set through a brilliant performance in a highly publicized hospital case. When he is approached by a young and inexperienced attorney with evidence that a highly touted new wonder drug may cause birth defects, he sees it as an opportunity to exert his firm's sense of humanity. However, the firm is the principal legal counsel for the drug's manufacturer. What seems at first to be a simple matter of potential conflict of interest rapidly escalates into an intricate web of intrigue involving both U.S. and British law as well as medical ethics. The highly charged atmosphere of big-time law and tense courtroom drama rapidly unfolds. The specter of Paul Newman (who starred in the film version of The Verdict ) is seen at every turn. A compelling, exciting novel. Highly recommended.
- Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.