This legal thriller about the intri­cate dirty pol­i­tics of the judi­cial sys­tem is an enter­tain­ing read. It is a page-turn­er cen­ter­ing around a high-pro­file mur­der, which sheds details about fam­i­ly and work rela­tion­ships and con­flicts of inter­est. We read per­ti­nent exam­ples about attorney/​client priv­i­lege, nepo­tism with­in the sys­tem, abu­sive work sit­u­a­tions for lawyers, ​“old boys” net­works, mafia, black­mail, loy­al­ty, pos­tur­ing, and for­give­ness. The pro­tag­o­nist, Aaron Littman — hus­band, father and super­star defense lawyer — is like an adopt­ed son to Sam Rosen­thal, founder of the most pow­er­ful law firm in New York City, Cromwell Alt­man Rosen­thal and White. Aaron has made a huge per­son­al mis­take which may bring down his fam­i­ly and career as well as the entire law firm. The author is him­self a crim­i­nal defense attor­ney and knows his sub­ject well. His writ­ing is good, and char­ac­ters are explored com­pre­hen­sive­ly as Mitzn­er takes the read­er through each step of the lit­i­gat­ing process. Each nuance of the case is hashed out with­in the dia­logue so that one feels like an invis­i­ble par­tic­i­pant in the thought process­es and case pro­ceed­ings. There is, thank­ful­ly, lit­tle empha­sis on sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty. The read­er quick­ly learns that truth and jus­tice are not mutu­al goals in the judi­cial world.

Relat­ed Content:

• Orga­nized Crime Read­ing List
• Cut Throat Dog by Joshua Sobol
• Trust by Charles Epping