Improved Lies
Non-series
Brian
Kennedy
Durban House (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-9779863-5-7 (0977986357)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9779863-5-4 (9780977986354)
Publication Date: February 2008
List Price: $19.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Ken Edwards was going nowhere fast. Then murder steps
up to the tee at Lake Pointe. Edwards has the defense of the
“Country Clubber” and his shot at redemption. But his dream
case is rapidly becoming a nightmare.
Amanda Armbruster was the darling of the country club set. Long, lithe
and lovely, she was the queen of many hearts. Her brutal murder ignites
a firestorm of public passion. Even before a jury can be seated, a
lynch mob is forming for Amanda’s husband, Ted.
Every rock Edwards turns over in building a defense hides something
dark, slimy and full of teeth. Money, power, and prestige are
threatened and are threatening in return. The high and mighty will stop
at nothing to keep their secrets hidden. On the golf course, over the
card table, and in the halls of justice, everybody is trying to improve
their lie. Presiding at trial sits Judge Alexandra Kingsdale. Years
earlier she tossed Edwards aside. Yet, she treats him as if it were his
doing. He can expect no help from the bench.
As the evidence mounts before a packed courtroom time is running out on
the defense. Unless Edwards can decode Amanda’s final enigma
“The cats went to the dogs.” he and his client will be
thrown to the wolves. A lifetime 18 handicapper, Edwards will have to
be a scratch lawyer if his client is to have any chance.
Review: Brian
Kennedy has created a compelling courtroom suspense thriller with his
first novel, Improved Lies,
set among the country club elite of northern Michigan.
Defense attorney Ken Edwards has an almost impossible task. His client,
businessman Ted Armbruster, is accused of murdering his wife in their
home. The evidence: Ted was found standing over the body, the murder
weapon, a bloody golf club, in his hands. To top it off he admitted
being responsible for her death, signing a confession witnessed by his
neighbor, a friend and also an lawyer. But Ted later swears to Ken that
he's innocent and Ken believes him. While preparing for trial, Ken
comes across a number of suspects that might have wanted to see Ted's
wife dead, some with both motive and opportunity, but none seem strong
enough to break the prosecution's case. Ted would rather go to jail
than accept a plea bargain, so Ken has no choice but to try to persuade
the jury that reasonable doubt exists and that his client should be
found not guilty of murder.
The author uses golf as a metaphor for the law, and a round of golf as
a metaphor for a trial. The title is a play on words: an improved lie
in golf is the intentional alteration of a ball's position so to make
it easier to hit. As Ken Edwards states in his closing arguments, "to
improve your lie is to cheat." He then goes on to say, "It is to ignore
the truth about where your ball has come to rest and to create a false
reality by cheating to gain advantage." For the crime being tried, he
explains, "[I]t's best not to lose sight of the tangled web that lying
creates. First, the lie; then the cover-up, or improved lie; then, when
that fails, murder."
Improved Lies, like many
legal thrillers, is split into two parts: the pre-trial investigation
followed by the trial itself. Both work well here. The investigation
brings multiple red herrings into the story, information that may (or
may not) point to the guilt (or innocence) of third parties (or Ted),
all of which are intended to introduce reasonable doubt into the minds
of the jurors. Ken is hampered in part by restrictions placed on him by
his client, restrictions he doesn't quite understand nor is he prepared
to honor if it means his client may be found guilty. But the best part
of the book is the trial which, for the most part, is riveting. The
author's experience as an attorney comes through here with an
authenticity that keeps the reader deeply absorbed in what happens,
almost as if they were part of the jury.
Other than a few plot points that don't quite work (most glaringly, Ken
neglecting to ask an obvious question about an investment club that
factors into his defense), Improved
Lies is an exceptional legal thriller that will keep the reader
guessing as to the outcome until the final pages.
Special thanks to Durban House for providing an ARC of Improved Lies for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Improved Lies? How would you rate it?
Novels by this author …
Improved Lies
Durban House (Trade Paperback), February 2008
ISBN-10: 0-9779863-5-7 (0977986357)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9779863-5-4 (9780977986354)
Omnimystery keywords for Improved Lies ...
Location(s) referenced: Michigan.
