The Jury Master by Robert DugoniKeep your friends close and your enemies closer. David Sloane, San Francisco’s most successful wrongful death lawyer, finds out just how true this adage is in Robert Dugoni’s political thriller, The Jury Master. Although the book opens and closes in the courtroom, this is not a legal thriller. Rather, its title character, Sloane, is highly intelligent, persuasive, and able to adapt quickly to changing situations. These traits that serve him so well in court prove invaluable during the mission he finds himself engaged in.Sloane is also a workaholic, a solitary man with no family. He has no recollection of his childhood. His parents, he was told, died in a car accident when he was young, and he spent years in and out of various foster homes. At seventeen, he joined the Marines. Now, despite his financial well-being thanks to his fine career and property management, he is plagued by migraines and recurring nightmares. Then he receives a package and a phone message from a man whom he does not know, and life as he knows it changes.In West Virginia, a friend of the President is found dead of an apparent suicide, except a local cop, Tom Molia, smells a rat. Even when ordered by the Department of Justice to close the file, “Mole” stubbornly continues his investigation. Once I got the characters straight in my head, which took some time because there were quite a few of them and the story lines went back and forth from San Francisco to West Virginia to Mexico to Washington, D.C., I got quite engrossed in this saga. The nightmares – were they dreams, or were they flashbacks? The nightmares intrigued me. Strangely, I had a sense of déjà vu as well, vaguely recalling a couple of scenes but not being able to put the whole plot together in my memory. Unlike David Sloane, I cannot attribute my memory failure to a traumatic event.David Sloane, Tom Molia, and Tina Scoccolo are all characters that I found likable and believable, and I would love to see more of them. The bad guys – military types and politicians – were somewhat stereotypical, but who doesn’t love to hate the villains?It was pretty obvious from the get-go who was behind all the killing and coverup in this book, but the motive and the history behind it made it worth reading. One thing that I always appreciate in any genre of writing is whether the characters grow. At the onset, David Sloane does not know who he is or where he came from. By the end of The Jury Master, he is definitely a changed man. This is very much a political thriller, but David Sloane and Tom “Mole” Molia are the real reason to like this book.4 stars
3.5 starsSan Francisco attorney David Sloane - a former foster child who has no memory of his early years - has a knack for getting juries to vote his way. The talented lawyer, plagued by bad dreams and headaches, finds himself in a dangerous situation when Joe Branick - a friend and colleague of the U. S. President - apparently commits suicide in Black Bear National Park in West Virginia. Before his death Branick, a stranger to Sloane, left the attorney a phone message and sent him a package. Unfortunately for Sloane, someone is desperate to get the package and seems willing to do anything to achieve this goal. Meanwhile Detective Joe Molina, a local cop who's investigating Branick's death in the national park, suspects it wasn't suicide. He's stymied though when the Justice Department takes possession of Branick's body and moves to close the case over the objections of Branick's sister. It seems clear that people high in the administration have something to hide. Concurrently, retired ClA operative Charles Jenkins - who many years before participated in an operation with both Branick and the future President - is pulled into the situation when an attempt is made on his life. As the story proceeds it becomes clear that a massacre occurred in a Mexican village 30 years ago, an incident which somehow affected Sloane, who was a young child at the time. As it turns out all three men - Sloane, Molina, and Jenkins - become involved in figuring out what happened to Branick, why the package is important, and what government officials are covering up. There's plenty of murder and violence along the way and at one point I became annoyed with some characters who seemed like cliches found in many thriller novels. The climax of the book, however, turned out to be quite original if not totally believable. There are a lot of interesting characters and a lot going on in the story, which is an enjoyable thriller. I'll probably read more books by this author.
What do You think about The Jury Master (2007)?
I guess I figured with a man in a lawyerly type suit, a reference to Grisham on the cover, and a title like "The Jury Master" it was a safe assumption that this would be a legal thriller.Not so much.Much more an international intrigue thing combined with a "what is the mystery secret of the past that links the seemingly disparate elements?" type of deal. Fine for a story, but nothing like what I expected.I was more interested in the side character of Detective "Mole" Molia than I was with the main character Sloan. Maybe that's because the best parts of this book for me were the "comic relief" sections. Or maybe it's because the most interesting character was a supporting actor. Chicken or egg, but there you have it. At this point I'd rather read Molia Part II than Sloan II. (Is that the one with Mister T?) Anyway...Overall, The Jury Master is not a bad read, but to corrupt a quote from Lloyd Bentsen: "I've read Grisham. Grisham books are friends of mine. Jury Master, you're no John Grisham."Three stars.UCBC Rating: 2.75
—Andrew
Joe Branick is special assistant to the President of the U.S. and has been a personal close friend of his for many years. Now he has been found dead of an apparent suicide. Those who knew Joe did not think this was possible with Joe's personal ethics and his close ties to family and his community. David Sloane is a defense attorney who never loses a case. It's a gift that not even David can understand, but one that wins him case after case with his mesmerizing 'gift of gab' at his closing arguments. Joe's sister has contacted David to help her solve what she believes is Joe's murder. The police has been summoned to drop whatever they were doing on this case and to have the body sent to the department of justice where they will continue this 'investigation'. Those at the police are finding it hard to leave this 'investigation' alone.A gripping and fast paced book I had trouble putting down until I read the last page!
—Carol MacInnis
I'm so happy to have discovered Robert Dugoni. That's how I put it ("discovered") when I read a book by an author I was unfamiliar with and do not expect to love it but do. That's what happened when I read Dugoni's latest (then) in his David Sloane series. I was so happy to learn that was a series and there were more. So I read another and, now, another. This one, THE JURY MASTER, is, I believe, the first in the series. And I love it, too, all but the end, that is.Sloane is a man with with no family, brought up in a series of foster homes. He is now a successful lawyer who has an extraordinary ability to convince a jury to find in his client's favor, even when evidence points to his client's guilt. But with the death of a man, a stranger, who called Sloane and mailed a mysterious package to him, he decides he must learn what the man wanted and "find himself," figure out the meaning of a persistent dream.That "dream" part sounds corny, I know, but it honestly isn't. In Dugoni's hands, Sloane's dream along with his experiences and all the criminal politics at the presidential level are believable. Until Chapter 86, Dugoni really had me, he grabbed me and didn't let go. But Chapter 86 needs a rewrite.If I told you about Chapter 86, I'd spoil Chapters 1 through 85 for you. And they're so good, I won't do that. Don't skip to Chapter 86 to see what I call corny to the nth degree. Read and enjoy the 85 chapters, and believe me that Sloane is not corny in later books. He's not a saint, but you'll love him.
—Beth
