Fatal Convictions

Alexander Madison is part lawyer, part pastor, and part con artist. When a Muslim imam is accused of instigating honor killings, Alex must decide whether to take the case that every other lawyer in town is running away from. He doesn’t realize until it’s too late that defending the imam may cost him the one thing in life he cares about most. Fatal Convictions is the story of a lawyer willing to risk it all and the women who must choose between faith and love.

Alexander Madison, a Virginia Beach attorney, isn’t quite an ambulance chaser, but he’s the type of lawyer who’ll show up at a patient’s hospital room, offering his services. He’s also a part-time pastor, and his interest in his clients isn’t purely financial: he seeks them out because he really cares about finding justice for those in desperate need of it. He has a promising personal-injury case (a woman was run off the road and smashed her car into a tree), but there is a troubling question: Is there any evidence that another car was even involved? Meanwhile, a high-profile murder case comes his way. Madison’s first reaction is to avoid it, but on reflection, he takes the case, defending a Muslim imam accused of murdering a woman who had converted to Christianity. Singer, a trial attorney, is a capable writer, and Madison is an intriguing creation. The novel has a few surprises, and the religious themes (a regular feature of Singer’s novels) are handled adroitly and subtly: they’re there if you want them, but they’re not intrusive. A solid, well-crafted legal thriller. --David Pitt