Publishers Weekly Reviews
Week of August 18, 2008
Criminal defense attorney Teller fills this captivating first installment of the Jaywalker series with sympathetic, nuanced characters and elegantly simplified legalese. The court sentences disgraced Manhattan criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, “Jaywalker,” to three years of suspension from practice, ordering him to complete 10 of his current cases and hand the rest over to other attorneys. Forced to choose among his clients, Jaywalker focuses on the defense of Samara Tannenbaum, a beautiful young ex-prostitute accused of murdering her aging billionaire husband. Throughout the difficult and lengthy trial, Jaywalker provides Samara with superior legal counsel even as he fights his tremendous attraction to her and his doubts of her innocence. Teller’s richly suspenseful story will leave the reader eagerly anticipating the denouement and Jaywalker’s next adventure.
The Book Book Blog
This is the first novel by Joseph Teller, a former undercover agent for the Bureau of Narcotics, and a trial lawyer for many years, who uses his experience and skills to create which may be an alter ego protagonist, Harrison J. Walker, Jaywalker . I was fortunate to read an advance copy.
Readers have many choices when it comes to Police detectives, private investigators, and lawyers solving, investigating and either prosecuting or defending and most are carrying some kind of baggage or have an attitude. If the author is good, we want to read more; best examples are Patterson s Alex Cross or Deaver s Lincoln Rhyme. I liked Teller s Jaywalker, he s a likeable good guy .
Jaywalker is a maverick New York lawyer who honed his skills as a public defender and is the kind of lawyer you would want if you run afoul of the law some one who, really, cares and is not afraid to bend a few rules if it will get his client free. His success ratio is in the high 90s.
Jaywalker is in trouble; his reputation and a perceived unseemly action with a female client have caused the court to suspend his license for a period of three years. The suspension does not, particularly, bother Jaywalker but he is concerned about the clients that are depending on him so he strikes a bargain with the court who allows him to select ten cases to bring to conclusion. It takes a while to work them out but his last one, The Tenth Case, a murder, will become the most challenging and difficult case he has tackled. His client, a beautiful young woman, is accused of stabbing her husband. The woman, Samara Moss, former Las Vegas showgirl and some time prostitute, married billionaire Barry Tannenbaum, three times divorced and 44 years older than her. The marriage lasted eight years although after the first few months, they set up separate households and Samara spent his money and slept around as she was wont to do. Husband and wife met social obligations together but lived apart. Jaywalker had defended Samara on a drunk driving charge when she totaled Barry s $400,000 Lamborghini and was very well compensated but this time, Jaywalker will have to settle for the same wages that a public defender would get.
The problem with the case was why? Samara had it made, she has money, clothes and total freedom to do what she wishes. The evidence against her was overwhelming and most of it was found in her own home. There was also an application signed by Samara dated shortly before his murder for a six month life insurance policy in the amount of $25,000,000 on Barry. Samara denies her guilt.
The characters are carefully developed and the plot and the action moves fast and smoothly. This became a very suspenseful novel. The court drama was interesting, we follow the preparation, dialogue and interaction between the prosecutor and Jaywalker and the Judge and I was never certain about the outcome. I found it hard to put the book down until I finished it. MIRA Books is ready to publish another Jaywalker novel, I look forward to reading it.
The Tome Traveler
Manhattan lawyer Harrison J. Walker has, for the length of his twenty-plus year career, been known simply as Jaywalker. In court, the judge usually calls him Mr. Jaywalker. He is that rare criminal defense attorney who believes that a defendant deserves at least one person in his corner, even if the defendant is guilty as sin. This belief has helped Jaywalker achieve a high acquittal rate. Extremely high. Exceeding ninety percent, in fact.
In order to achieve this remarkably high acquittal rate, Jaywalker uses unconventional methods. Methods the court sometimes frowns upon, in the form of a disciplinary board who has decided that he must take a three year break. They allow him to finish ten of his current cases before his three year suspension starts. The first nine are relatively easy to wrap up.
The tenth case is Samara Moss. A beautiful young gold digger who is accused of murdering her wealthy older husband. The evidence is overwhelming, it seems to be an open and shut case for the prosecution. Except that she says that she didn’t do it. And it is Jaywalker’s job to defend her and prove that she has been framed.
The author has done a fantastic job of constructing a gripping courtroom drama. It is obvious that he is an experienced defense attorney himself and he creates an absorbing, interesting story that gives the reader all the flavor of being behind the scenes with the defense in a murder trial. Add to that a locked room mystery, a little romance and an easy to like protagonist. All in all, a very enjoyable novel.
I look forward to reading the second book in the Jaywalker series, Bronx Justice, coming in 2009.
Review from Amazon.co.uk
Advantages: excellent gripping read
Disadvantages: none
I am a great fan of courtroom dramas, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy John Grisham novels so much and I pretty much look on him as the master of this genre. Therefore, when I discover a book that claims that it’s ‘better than Grisham or your money back’ I am bound to be interested. This was the claim made by the publishers of ‘The Tenth Case’ which meant that I found myself compelled to read it. I do think that Grisham at his best is pretty unbeatable although not all that he writes lives up to expectations. So could this book beat, or at least match, what Grisham does? Read on…
At the start of the book, we meet Jaywalker, a defence lawyer, whose methods are somewhat unorthodox to say the least. In fact, he is in so much trouble that he is about to be barred from practicing law for three years. He is, however, permitted to complete ten existing cases before he is required to stop. Nine of these are quite straightforward and soon dispensed with but the tenth case is different. Samara Tannenbaum is accused of murdering her wealthy husband. The evidence is stacked against her, she has no alibi and only a month before the murder, she took out a hefty life assurance policy in case of his sudden death. The case looks unwinnable but Jaywalker still has to give it his best shot.
The book follows Jaywalker as he prepares for the case and then the actual trial itself. It is fascinating to read how the case progresses and how the lawyer sets about trying to refute all the evidence that is stacked against his client. I really liked the way the author gave the reader lots of insights into the way Jaywalker was thinking, particularly as he attempts to turn the facts around to his advantage. I enjoyed the way that, during the trial, we discovered why he would ask certain questions of witnesses but leave others out. The reader knows that he is one of the most successful defence lawyers, and this access to his thoughts help you to understand why.
The way the trial unfolds is riveting and I wanted to read more and more. Much of the interrogation of the witnesses is presented as court transcripts which I thought worked very well. As well as increasing the pace, it gives an excellent feel to the way the examinations and cross-examinations are going and makes the reader feel that they could actually be there.
The main character, Jaywalker, is developed very well. Not only does the reader experience his excellent rhetoric and sharp mind in court, but they also get to know something of the man too. He comes across as very likeable and because of this, regardless of whether Samara, is innocent or guilty, you want him to win. You can’t help but smile as he manages to counter some significant piece of evidence, but you also despair at other times when he seems to lose ground with the jury.
In essence, this is a gripping courtroom drama, and the reason it is so is because it is well paced, engrossing and you really don’t know to the very end how it is going to turn out. And, as with the very best of this type of novel, expect the unexpected. There are many twists along the way to its absorbing conclusion and towards the end I could not put it down.
So to return to the question of whether this book is better than Grisham, here is my verdict. In my opinion, it is definitely better than some and I rate it so highly that I would have to say that The Tenth Case is as good as Grisham’s best. It really is that good and I am very glad that I read it.
The paperback, with 400 pages, is available from Amazon for only £3.86.
This review has previously appeared under my name at www.thebookbag.co.uk.
Summary: Probably as good as most of Grisham’s novels.
