The Tenth Case
A
Jaywalker Mystery
Joseph
Teller
Mira Books (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7783-2605-5 (0778326055)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2605-2 (9780778326052)
Publication Date: October 2008
List Price: $7.99
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better
known as Jaywalker, has just been suspended for using "creative"
tactics and receiving "gratitude" in the courtroom stairwell from a
client charged with prostitution. Convincing the judge that his other
clients are counting on him, Jaywalker is allowed to complete ten
cases. But it's the last case that truly tests his abilities -- and his
acquittal record.
Samara Moss -- young, petite and sexy as hell -- stabbed her husband in
the heart. Or so everyone believes. Having married the elderly
billionaire when she was an eighteen-year-old former prostitute, Samara
appears to be the clichéd gold digger. But Jaywalker knows all
too well that appearances can be deceiving. Who else could have killed
the billionaire? Has Samara been framed? Or is Jaywalker just driven by
his need to win his clients' cases -- and this particular client's
undying gratitude?
Review: Police
procedurals abound -- good, bad and indifferent. Now, Joseph
Teller’s stellar, The Tenth
Case, sets the standard for defense attorney procedurals.
Drawing on Teller’s thirty-five year career as a criminal defense
attorney, the novel is the first in his projected series starring
Harrison J. Walker, a hard-headed, soft-hearted criminal lawyer known
in the courts and on the streets as “Jaywalker.” With his
commitment to getting his clients a “not guilty” verdict,
and a success rate of over ninety percent, he’s the kind of guy
you want defending you, guilty or not.
Although he’s eminently successful in getting his clients
acquitted, Jaywalker’s got a major problem. His reputation as
“a renegade among renegades” has finally caught up with
him, especially for an alleged sexual indiscretion, and he is being
suspended from practicing law for the next three years. In the
meantime, however, he can complete ten of the seventeen cases he listed
as primary concerns. The first nine he cleans up in record time but the
tenth, a murder case, becomes his make or break, both professionally
and personally, and is the substance for the novel.
What distinguishes Teller’s novel is its focus on telling the
story based on the procedures and protocols a defense attorney invokes
to defend his client, in this case a stunningly beautiful, petite,
twenty-six-year old former client of his, Samara Moss aka Samantha
Musgrove, now accused of murdering her seventy-year-old ailing husband,
allegedly for the proceeds of a multimillion dollar insurance policy.
In defending her, Jaywalker, who is “closing in on fifty”
has to overcome two obstacles. One is his attraction to her. The other
is an apparently iron-clad case against her. And while he reluctantly
resists the sexual temptations she tosses his way with his promises to
wait until “after”, he meticulously builds a case for her
defense, taking the readers through the details of the procedures for
dealing with the police and prosecutors, selecting a jury of
sympathetic citizens, citing relevant statutes, preparing his
potty-mouthed client for her trial, and strategizing on how best to
cast suspicion on others and raise reasonable doubt in the
jurors’ minds about the bloody murder weapon wrapped in
Moss’s blood-soaked blouse and hidden in her bathroom, to which
only she had access.
Besides being a cracker-jack of a page-turning mystery with a
surprising twist of an ending, Teller’s story provides an
insightful background setting for a courtroom drama involving a master
manipulator, a straight-up, competent prosecutor and a street-wise
former prostitute adept at getting her way with older men. With The Tenth Case,
“Jaywalker,” suspended from the bar or not, definitely gets
the green light for more of the same in Teller’s projected series.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of The Tenth Case and to Planned Television Arts for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
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The Tenth Case
Mira Books (Mass Market Paperback), October 2008
ISBN-10: 0-7783-2605-5 (0778326055)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2605-2 (9780778326052)
Omnimystery keywords for The Tenth Case ...
Location(s) referenced: New York City.
