The Alternate - Hardcover

Martel, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525944877 ISBN 13: 9780525944874

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 1999

Synopsis

A philandering former congressman is arrested for killing his wife in an apparent open-and-shut case, but prosecutor Grace Harris and defense attorney Barrett Dickson find themselves working together to solve an all-too-complicated murder case. 75,000 first printing. Lit Guild Alt. Doubleday & Mystery Guild.

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Reviews

Repeated references to the O.J. Simpson trial notwithstanding, Martel's latest legal thriller (after Partners) is an old-school melodrama. When a former beauty queen is stabbed to death with a shard of her own bathroom mirror, police rush to arrest husband Elliot Ashford, a wealthy, former right-wing congressman with suspected ties to the Mafia. Everyone assumes Ashford is "dead-bang guilty"Aincluding D.A. Earl Field, a politically ambitious African-American with mob connections of his own; his beautiful assistant, Grace Harris; even Ashford's own lawyer, "Bear" Dickson, a "hard-luck, hard-drinking" corporate attorney hired by the defense mainly for his friendship with the presiding judge. Predictably, defending the despicable Ashford gets Dickson's professional juices flowing again, and he even begins to entertain unprofessional fantasies about Assistant D.A. Harris. But the courses of justice and true love hit a snag when down-and-out Amanda Keller arrives as an alternate on the Ashford jury. A former child beauty-pageant queen and now a psychologically unstable soap opera actress between jobs, Keller is determined to grab the headlines, even by the most desperate measures. The plot twists strenuously as the characters cross and double-cross each other, spitting out venomous one-liners ("Isn't it a tight squeeze getting a cloven foot into those Ferragamos, Elliot?") and self-righteous tirades about forensic and criminal ethics. Martel aims for psychological thrills and contemporary cool, mixing post-O.J. cynicism with potboiler morality. But his overlong yarn is replete with such stale characterization and predictable plot machinations that few will be surprised when the author tacks on a hackneyed deus ex machina happy ending. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selection.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

You've met the prosecutor from hell, the D.A. from hell, the judge, the client, the witness from hell. Now Martel (Conflicts of Interest, 1995, etc.) presents the juror from hell. Ex-Congressman Elliot Ashford, who looks and talks like Jay Gatsby, is accused of killing his wife. It's the sort of case that could vault San Francisco D.A. Earl Field into the governor's mansion, but Field has dirty reasons of his own for tanking the case. Asking Grace Harris, the head of his homicide trials unit, to serve as his co-counsel, he resolves to torpedo his own case while making sure she gets the blame. Grace's opposite number, Barrett Dickson, is getting set up equally dextrously. A veteran litigator who's been in seclusion ever since losing a foolproof case, he agrees to second-chair Elliot's hotshot L.A. attorney Al Menghetti, then watches while Menghetti goes into a tailspin and walks, leaving him holding the bag for a client he dislikes and distrusts on behalf of a firm that's trying to ease him out. The wild card neither Grace nor Barrett reckons with is Amanda Keller, the file clerk who's convinced that getting called for Elliot's jury will restart her acting career. Snaking her way from the pool of alternates to a coveted seat on the jury, she hatches a series of increasingly deranged plots to see her brand of justice done. Martel neglects all the traditional strengths of legal intriguethe courtroom scenes are muffled, the complications exhausting, the characters as simplified as caricaturesin order to keep unearthing new varieties of skullduggery the way some writers unearth new evidence. Long before Grace warns the Grace-smitten Barrett, Don't deny your client a shot at a fair trial!, most readers will be wondering what on earth a fair trial might be. Martel would've written a masterpiece if only the fascinating questions he raises about the corruption bred by the adversarial system of criminal justice made for equally fascinating melodrama. (Literary Guild/Mystery Guild selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Someone has brutally murdered the wife of wealthy and well-connected Elliot Ashford in their home. Elliot is arrested, and the district attorney, one of Elliots political enemies with gubernatorial aspirations, is ready to prosecute but appears to be making prosecutorial decisions that will lose the case. The twists and turns, even before the alternate juror is chosen, are page-turners, but the reader will not get lost in the maze. Lawyer-written court novels may be a dime a dozen, but this one is a standout from start to finish. Martel (one of the National Law Journals top ten trial lawyers and the author of Conflicts of Interest, 1985) delivers a masterly story of murder, madness, and the law.Annelle R. Huggins, Memphis State Univ. Libs.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525944877
• ISBN 13: 9780525944874
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 417