Perjury - Hardcover

Latreille, Stan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609601385 ISBN 13: 9780609601389

Publisher: Crown, 1998

Synopsis

From a writer and trial judge poised to join the ranks of Scott Turow and Lisa Scottoline, Perjury is a fast-paced courtroom drama about lies, sexual abuse, and the conflict between law and justice.

Jack Brenner, a burned-out public de-fender from Chicago, has left lying clients and political maneuvering behind to take on the more lucrative, predictable routine of a civil lawyer in a small Michigan town. But when the court assigns him to defend a woman accused of perjury, he is swept back into the labyrinth of the criminal justice system--and into a nest of small-town politics, greed, and revenge.
        
His client, Davey Alden, has admitted she lied on the stand, fabricating the incidents when she claimed her husband Joel Alden sexually abused their young daughter. Outraged by Davey's deceit, the town and the legal system have shifted their sympathies to her husband, one of the most powerful men in the county. A quick, open-and-shut trial is expected.
        
Brenner faces a vengeful prosecutor, a political judge, hostility from the press, and overwhelming evidence and public opinion against Davey. Fueled by his growing attraction to his seductive client, Jack Brenner has a case he cannot win and must not lose--for if Davey is convicted, not only will she face time in jail, but her daughter will be surrendered to Joel's custody. And Brenner has reason to believe that even if Davey is guilty of perjury, Joel is far from innocent.
        
Stan Latreille tells a riveting tale of the law as it is practiced behind the closed doors of a judge's chambers and in the public eye--how guilt and innocence, means and ends, morality and justice are served, and failed, by the law.

About this title

About the Author

As a trial judge in Michigan for the last fifteen years, Stan Latreille has presided over murder and rape trials, complex civil cases, and family litigation of every kind. Before entering the law, he was a newspaper reporter and editor for ten years. He and his wife Barbara have raised five children. This is his first novel.

From the Back Cover

"Latreille has woven a lively story which will keep the reader involved to the suspenseful climax. The courtroom scenes and the powerful cast of characters are first-rate."        
--Barry Reed, author of The Verdict

"In the tradition of Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, Latreille's story is a fresh, intelligent insight into the legal process as well as being a skillful work of suspense. It depicts believably a lawyer in conflict with his work and himself. Also, in the Turow spirit, what appears to be the final outcome is not the final outcome at all. Highly recommended."        
--Library Journal

From the Inside Flap

r and trial judge poised to join the ranks of Scott Turow and Lisa Scottoline, <b>Perjury</b> is a fast-paced courtroom drama about lies, sexual abuse, and the conflict between law and justice.<br><br>Jack Brenner, a burned-out public de-fender from Chicago, has left lying clients and political maneuvering behind to take on the more lucrative, predictable routine of a civil lawyer in a small Michigan town. But when the court assigns him to defend a woman accused of perjury, he is swept back into the labyrinth of the criminal justice system--and into a nest of small-town politics, greed, and revenge.<br>        <br>His client, Davey Alden, has admitted she lied on the stand, fabricating the incidents when she claimed her husband Joel Alden sexually abused their young daughter. Outraged by Davey's deceit, the town and the legal system have shifted their sympathies to her husband, one of the most powerful men in the county. A quick, open-and-shut

Reviews

Possibly the best first novel by a sitting Michigan judge since Robert Traver's Anatomy of a Murder, Latreille's noir tale of a lawyer trying to defend a treacherous, needy client is an engrossing, contemporary throwback to its classic precursor. Burnt out from a failed marriage and 20 years as a Chicago public defender, narrator Jack Brenner comes back to Michigan to join a suburban Detroit law firm. Jack is required to handle the pro bono defense of Davey Alden, accused of perjury after claiming that her husband, Joel, sexually abused their four-year-old daughter. The case looks hopeless for Davey, who has admitted in court that she lied. Driven by curiosity and by a growing attraction to Davey, Jack soon grows convinced that Joel Alden is at least a potential abuser. The complex plot involves Davey's promiscuity, Jack's fascination with Davey, Joel's ex-wife and their daughter (a teenage suicide), a shady real estate deal, an old diary, nail-biting courtroom scenes and a post-trial bombshell. Central to all this is mercurial, manipulative Davey and her own slowly revealed history of childhood abuse, which Latreille depicts with effective restraint. All the characters are interesting (although Jack and Dr. Ann Mahoney, his septuagenarian, martini-drinking, tart-tongued Catholic neighbor, are the only sympathetic members of the cast). This compelling new voice, schooled in Chandler and Hammett, knows what draws us to courtroom drama: "Character is what every trial is about. It is always relevant. That's why the law is so afraid of it." By the time they reach the bittersweet ending, readers will agree.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Routine legal thriller based on Picasso's maxim that art--in this case, a witnesss damning testimony--is a lie that helps us realize the truth. Heartbreakingly beautiful Davilon ``Davey'' Alden, mother of four-year-old Julie, ruins a scandalous child molestation case against her estranged husband, millionaire construction magnate Joel Alden, when she admits under oath that the heinous deeds shed ascribed to Joel really never occurred. She tells her court-appointed defender, former Chicago criminal lawyer Jack Brenner, that she dreamed up the charges against her husband to stop him before he could destroy Julie's life. Brenner, an embittered, childless divorc, suffers also from mid-career burn-out. Against his better judgment, he decides not to accept Prosecutor Brad Holtzman's plea-bargain that would put Davey in jail for five years and give Joel custody of Julie. The trial stirs a predictable pot of small-town intrigue in Laffler County, Michigan, where Joel Alden's less-than-legal business affairs (including a landfill scam) directly affect the local economy. As an outsider, Brenner finds himself welcome only in philosophical conversations with a lakeside cottage neighbor and in the sexily evanescent embraces of social worker Judy Cusmano, both of whom feel that Davey is somehow innocent. While Joel's menacing sidekicks pressure Brenner to throw the case, Brenner discovers that Melanie, Joel's daughter from his first marriage, may have committed suicide because of Joel's incestuous advancesand that Davey, with whom Brenner is now romantically involved, is herself the victim of a sexually abusive father. When Melanie's horrific diary turns up, Brenner suppresses his doubts about his client and uses every cheap courtroom trick at Davey's trial to make the jury accept her act of perjury as a desperate wifes last resort. Juries are more interested in mercy than in justice? An astute premise from first-novelist (and circuit court judge) Latreillewho almost sinks the point with genre clichs (who needs another shrill, de-sexed female assistant prosecutor?). -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

On the heels of a divorce, Jack Brenner leaves his high-stress job as a public defender in Chicago to take up practice with an old law school roommate in little Kirtley, Michigan. The circuit court appoints him to defend Davey Alden, a young woman who has been indicted for perjury against her husband, Joel. Several factors complicate what seems to be a no-win case. For one thing, Joel Alden is the richest and most powerful man around. And Brenner is attracted to his beautiful client, even as he is troubled by inconsistencies in her version of events and conflicting stories from others about her actions and her character. And the more Brenner digs, the more evidence he uncovers that the case is bigger than a divorce turned ugly, and the more ambiguous everyone's motives become. The author, a circuit court judge, writes with the assurance of an insider and does a good job of handling all the novel's twists and turns. Mary Ellen Quinn

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0609601385
• ISBN 13: 9780609601389
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 337