Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Hallows by Victor Methos

Victor Methos is a successful practicing attorney in a firm he co-founded in Utah as well as an accomplished author with 50 mystery and science fiction novels to his credit including nine series. His stand-alone The Gambler’s Jury (Thomas & Mercer, 2018) was shortlisted for the Edgar’s Best Novel award.

The following stand-alone The Hallows (Thomas & Mercer, 2019) is a fine legal thriller. Tatum Graham is on top of the world, a leading defense lawyer in Miami, Florida, where his talent is in demand by the rich and famous. Known for getting his clients acquitted even in the most egregious situations, he charges outrageous fees and the luminaries in need of his services willingly pay them. Until he defends someone who celebrates his acquittal by promptly committing murder.

Tatum turns his back on Miami and his life there in disgust and desperation and heads back to his small hometown in Utah, on his way to somewhere he can hide. There he finds his desperately ill father from whom he parted on bad terms years before and his high school girlfriend Gates who is now the district attorney in an underfunded and understaffed office. Gates persuades Tatum to stay around long enough to help the two freshly minted lawyers in her office prosecute a murder case. Ineptly investigated by the local police and overshadowed by the political power of the defendants’ families, the case looks lost from the start. Tatum galvanizes the limited resources at his disposal and plunges in, feeling quite strange to be on the prosecutorial side of the fence. Misdirection abounds as he searches for more evidence to convict the defendants, resulting in a gratifying surprise ending.

No surprises in the outline of the plot, the conventions of the legal thriller are all there: the disenchanted superstar, the case with impossible odds, political opposition, the love from the past, the opportunity for redemption. Methos embellishes and polishes these standard components until they gleam like new in this sleek piece of writing. Compulsively readable. Readers of legal thrillers and police procedurals will especially enjoy this book.  

Winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.

 

·         Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (July 1, 2019)

·         Language: English

·         Hardcover: 350 pages

·         ISBN-10: 1542042747

·         ISBN-13: 978-1542042741

Aubrey Hamilton ©2021

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.