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Title: Death Row by William Bernhardt ISBN: 0-345-44176-1 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good guys finish first
Comment: Oklahoma attorney, Ben Kincaid, is back. This time he is trying to win a reprieve for a death row prisoner whose case he lost seven years earlier. Time is not on Ben's side.
Industrial chemist, Ray Goldman was convicted of a the brutal slaying of a fellow coworker's entire family, except a fifteen year old daughter who was left to die chained to the basement floor. The daughter survived the ordeal and was the star witness in the prosecution case. Seven years has passed, now Erin Faulkner wants to recant her testimony. Before she is able to do so to anyone but Ben, she is murdered.
Ben Kincaid is a do-gooder at heart. He likes to help the downtrodden and the helpless. He is always one step away form bankruptcy. He is really an anti-lawyer kind of lawyer and a very likable character. The first chapter of this book was very graphic and extremely hard to read. The plot itself was suspenseful and a lot of twists to it. There was a good secondary story between homicide detective partners, Mike Morelli and Kate Baxter. Overall, a good book that sometimes got a little too preachy about the fast food industry. Fast food lovers beware-this might not be the book for you.
Rating: 5
Summary: A LEGAL PULSE POUNDER
Comment: As a former trial lawyer William Bernhardt bases his legal thrillers on hard earned data and experience, realities which make his tales all the more exciting. Suspense, masterful plotting, and an au courante subject are elements readers have come to expect from this popular author, and all are found in abundance in his latest novel.
Death Row, another in the Ben Kincaid series, tackles criminal appeals and the death penalty. Tulsa is shocked and saddened when a family is ruthlessly murdered in their comfortable suburban home. There is only one survivor to tell the story and identify the attacker - teen-aged Erin Faulkner.
As is his wont, attorney Kincaid champions an unpopular cause in his defense of Ray Goldman, a chemist who is accused of the heinous crime. Screaming media headlines and blood curdling details seem to seal the chemist's fate. But, the always perspicacious Kincaid mounts his defense on the dearth of damning evidence and police goof-ups during the investigation. It seems that Goldman will go free until young Erin testifies and points her finger at him.
True to his white knuckle writing reputation Bernhardt propels readers to moments before Goldman's walk to the death chamber when a sudden reprieve is announced. It seems that Erin has recanted her testimony to Kincaid, and wants desperately to save an innocent man.
Shockingly, Erin cannot even save herself as she is soon found dead; it is believed by her own hand. The cause of her death may be accepted by most, but certainly not by Kincaid. He speculates that the same merciless killer who murdered her family also took Erin's life. But, how can he prove it, how can he find the mysterious killer, and can he do it without losing his own life?
Jet propelled action and a topic from today's newspapers combine in this estimable legal pulse pounder.
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 3
Summary: No wonder this poor guy spent 7 years on death row
Comment: This is a book that legal-murder-crime-mystery writers salivate over. A book that grabs the reader by the throat from the first dozen pages, and continues to shake them. Can't put it down. Got to see if Ray Goldman, the brilliant chemist who has a hobby, yes, of being a gourmet cook on the side, is really guilty. Guilty of murder most foul, the slaughter of an innocent family.
Then we float into the arena of . . . golly, this doesn't make too much sense. People don't talk that way; You can't hide evidence from defense lawyers . . . ever; People don't rise to great heights who are sexist, painfully shy, impotent to act in their personal lives, buffoons.
Ray is convicted on the testimony of the sole survivor of the Faulkner family massacre, 15 year old Erin Faulkner. Seems she identified the voice of the masked assailant/psychopath, and it's Goldman. This catches the shy but brilliant attorney Ben Kincaid unawares because the evidence has never been turned over to the defense. Now granted, we readers aren't brilliant jurists but this is reversible error. This is mistrial city. This is prosecutorial misconduct. Makes no difference. Ray is sentenced to be executed.
Ray faces legal injection but doesn't want Ben interviewing his ex-girlfriend . . . .whom no one has ever interviewed. This seems odd. At least tell us that one of the troika, the cops, the DA or the Defense interviewed her. But no, like the lineup evidence, no one asked.
Mike Morelli, close friend of Ben's and in his own right a brilliant detective, attends the crime scene of Erin Faulkner's death hours after she tells Ben that she didn't really "know" it was Ray Goldman behind the ski mask, and Morelli concludes it was definitely . . . a suicide.
Morelli's relationship with Lisa Baxter, his beautiful partner, and for that matter Kincaid's relationship with Christina, his partner, is straight out of school . . . .Middle School. They are childish, foolish, tedious, and make you want to turn the page.
Ultimately great plot, a couple of nicely crafted surprises, poor dialogue. Larry Scantlebury. Three stars.
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Title: Hate Crime (BERNHARDT, WILLIAM) by William Bernhardt ISBN: 0345451473 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Criminal Intent by William Bernhardt ISBN: 0345441753 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Second Chair: A Novel by John T. Lescroart ISBN: 0525947752 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: 26 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Final Verdict by Sheldon Siegel ISBN: 0399150420 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Pub. Date: 07 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Blinded (WHITE, STEPHEN) by Stephen White ISBN: 0385336209 Publisher: Delacorte Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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