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More than one safe gets cracked in this intriguing tale that has a John Grisham or Scott Turow feel to it. In addition to the heavy metal safe inside the Mexican fast-food restaurant with a lot less cash than is expected, there is also the paper trail safe that leads to a land grab for a lot more cash than most people can imagine. What one has to do with the other and how a couple of young lawyers unravel hidden connections between the two are at the heart of this legal thriller.
Patricia is a smart, tightly wound attorney in a law firm whose profits and reputation are trending in the wrong direction. Jack is an intelligent but easier going lawyer who works down the hall. Patricia is assigned by the court to defend a seemingly penniless criminal whose aborted robbery wound up with two men dead, while Jack is given the responsibility of shepherding a local high roller’s pursuit of land that somehow keeps getting more valuable without getting improved. As these two storylines play out, readers are introduced to a coterie of characters whose tentacles reach into each narrative. Before the novel’s end, Patricia and Jack find themselves in harrowing situations that were never covered in law school.
Garrison is a gifted writer capable of creating visual and atmospheric descriptions that are as picturesque as his action sequences are suspenseful. His dialogue sounds less like plot exposition and more like actual conversation. His characters’ motivations and behaviors stay true to the personalities he has created for them, and his intricately legal plot feels imminently credible. If novels are like safes, and sometimes they are, this one is worth cracking.
A 2020 Eric Hoffer Book Award Category Finalist.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review