I picked this up from the clearance rack at Half Price Books, and this is a definite winner.Charley Sloan is arguably the nicest defense attorney you'd ever want to meet. Recovering alcoholic and thrice-divorced, Charley made it big before losing everything and almost getting disbarred. Climbing back from the brink, selling shoes and real estate to make ends meet, he rebuilds a small one-man practice by handling divorces, real estate transactions,representing petty criminals and the occasional high-profile murderer.Charley finds himself in a tough situation when an old down-and-out attorney friend asks him to handle the appeal on a big liability case. When he hears whispers that one of the appellate panel judges may be on the take, Charley has to decide how to proceed. If he refuses to go along, he will lose the judgement and his percentage, but more importantly, his client -- rendered quadriplegic by an accident -- will never receive proper care.Charley is likable, honest and truly concerned about the best interests of his clients. I found myself hoping that this wasn't the only Charley Sloan book written, and I'm looking forward to reading more.
Legal thrillers are a sub-genre I don't dip into much, but now and again it's fun to see how lawyers work, or at least how writers want us to think they work. William J. Coughlin, who wrote a bunch of these from the seventies to the nineties, was a judge, so his books presumably rate high on the authenticity scale. His character Charley Sloan is a recovering alcoholic in the Detroit area who lost a high-flying career to drink and since sobering up has been running a little one-man practice handling small-time stuff. This makes him an underdog, which always helps a character's appeal. In this one Sloan juggles a couple of high-profile cases along with a slew of minor ones while getting caught in an ethical bind between loyalty and the law. It makes for an entertaining read with adequate suspense despite the lack of gunplay, serial killers and vampires, and the resolution is legally and dramatically satisfying. Just a competently written story of lawyers and their business; I'll read more of these.
