Genre: Legal
Thriller
Description:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards
justice. --- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jonathan Hendrix, the youngest U.S. Attorney General in history, knows
that bending the arc won’t happen on its own, help is needed. He is determined
to curb runaway civil jury awards that are threatening to destabilize the
economy.
Graduating law school, Steve Shane is a top wall street prospect.
Shunning the big firms, he sets up his own practice and six years later has
developed a solid reputation as a commercial litigator.
Hendrix recruits Shane to create LawForce, a government-supported,
legal SWAT team to be deployed in key cases where an inequality of counsel
threatens bad verdicts. Their first case – Green Action Coalition v. Wildcat
Oil & Gas.
A medium sized oil and gas company, Wildcat is plagued by an
apparently random series of environmental accidents. Not accidents according to
the Green Action Coalition, a leader in the new era of aggressive environmental
litigation, but evidence of a pattern of negligence. The damages sought by the
GAC have the potential to destroy Wildcat. Acting for the GAC is a high-powered
team of legal eagles from the blue-chip firm of Todd Ives Tillington, led by
senior partner Andrew Tillington III. Wildcat appears hopelessly outclassed . .
. then Shane is retained.
Shane and LawForce discover they are in for more than just a tough
legal battle as they negotiate the twists and turns of the case to its
explosive courtroom finale.”
Author:
A retired lawyer who splits his time between Calgary, Alberta,
Switzerland, and Hawaii, this is author Nick Gretener’s first published novel. He
says that he is convinced that if people read more that the world would be a
better place.
Appraisal:
This was a fun read as well as having an interesting concept to get
the reader thinking. If you like legal thrillers like you might get from John
Grisham, to pick someone from the top of the heap, then this book would be a
good fit. Like any good thriller or mystery, it keeps you guessing as new
information is uncovered. Even though the reader is clued in on some things
that the good guys in the book don’t figure out until the end, the reader is
still going to be getting surprised as more of the story unfolds.
Along with the legal thriller aspects this story also has some
interesting ideas and concepts for the reader to consider. For example
LawForce, the secret government team put together to help even things out for
the little guy (in this case a small company) in this book. In some ways it
feels like a good idea, in others, maybe not. But the thinking behind it and
how things turn out in this book versus how we can guess things would have
happened without them sure got me considering some of the weaknesses in the US
legal system. Definitely an enjoyable and thought provoking read.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Some adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words
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