Steve Cavanagh’s fourth book about
Eddie Flynn won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in July 2019
amidst formidable competition, which says just how good a read it is. Since I
hadn’t encountered Eddie previously, I started at the beginning with The
Defense (Flatiron Books, 2016) and found it an excellent legal
thriller as well as a witty story of a resourceful con man trying to go
straight and giving up when a law-abiding life couldn’t protect his family.
Eddie Flynn is a former grifter who
learned the trade from his father. He abandoned a lucrative life running scams
to attend law school and lead an average life. After a defense case gone
horribly off the rails, he sold his share of his law practice and hit the sauce
far too hard, losing his wife and daughter in the process. One morning awhile
after Eddie began his slow climb back to sobriety, a member of the Russian
mafia kidnaps him for a meeting with his chief, who is out on bail before his
trial for homicide. The mafia chief Volchek explains to Eddie that he is
holding Eddie’s daughter hostage until Eddie gets Volchek acquitted by killing
the main witness against him.
In a desperate bid to save his
daughter and stay out of jail himself, Eddie resurrects all of his rusty
swindler’s tricks to outsmart the Russian gangsters as well as uses his
considerable legal expertise to tap dance his way through a murder trial he’s
had no time to prepare for. When it becomes clear the Russians have members of
law enforcement on their payroll and no assistance can be expected from that
quarter, Eddie has no choice but to call on the people he knew in his other
life for help. They include his childhood friend who is now the leader of an
Italian crime family, with his own agenda where the Russians are concerned.
An original and gripping plot with a
host of first-rate characters. The suspense is expertly developed, resulting in
some harrowing scenes, for instance, where Eddie scales the front of the old
and crumbling courthouse building. Eddie Flynn is an exceptionally fine
addition to the ranks of fictional lawyers, and I am pleased to make his
acquaintance.
Shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel
Dagger Award for Thriller of the Year.
Publishers Weekly starred review
·
Hardcover: 320
pages
·
Publisher: Flatiron
Books; 1st edition (May 3, 2016)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 1250082250
·
ISBN-13: 978-1250082251
Aubrey Hamilton ©2019
Aubrey
Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and
reads mysteries at night.
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