Rating: 
Summary: Better than John Grisham's
Review: If William Diehl continues to write a few more books like Primal Fear he will overtake John Grisham as the master of court room drama. Primal fear is full of powerful dialog, twists in the tale and the best one comes at the end, just as the readers think everything is over. In one word, it is 'frightening'
Rating:
Summary: The punchline left me cold.
Review: This was an absolutely awesome psychological thriller.
For the first time, I read a book after seeing the movie....
And I was still able to enjoy it just as much, if not more.
I love books with surprise endings, and Primal Fear did great justice to that passion.
Rating: 
Summary: This one will keep you on the edge of your seat!
Review: Great suspense, characters and story, with a surprise ending! But skip the movie - even though it stars Richard Gere, it's nothing like the book
Rating:
Summary: This is one novel that will keep you up all night!!
Review: A masterfully written tale of the murder of the "Saint" of
Chicago and the subsequent trial of the killer, this novel
is full of suspense and the more you read, the harder it
is to put it down. Trust me, you won't believe the ending...
Rating:
Summary: Geez, I'm still shaking.
Review: Legal drama, Action, Suspense, Murder, Romance, Intrique. This book has
got it all. Diehl really delivers in this mesmerizing tale of a lawyer
handling the worst pro-bono case ever. Martin Vail is made to defend
a young man who is arrested for the killing of the saint of Chicago.
This masterfully woven book of suspense will keep you turning the pages
all night long. Don't stop! It only gets better!
Rating:
Summary: Great book brings you to a surprising climax.
Review: Diehl masterfully weaves a web of intrigue and surprise. A must read book. Once you pick it up, you'll want to read it until the end. It is a great book that brings you to a surprising clima
Rating:
Summary: First-rate psychological thriller
Review: Although past its prime, this book is an absolute classic and has withstood the test of time to prove itself to be one of the very best psychological thrillers. Fast-paced and thorough, this thriller combines the best elements of the legal and psychological thriller genres to make for a fantastic read. As someone who is generally very critical of the realism in modern legal thrillers, I found little not to like in Primal Fear. Diehl is a first-rate writer.
Rating:
Summary: The Movie Scared Me
Review: The movie scared me, so I bought the book, which is the opposite of how I usually operate: book first, movie second. While I enjoyed the movie (Richard Gear in rare form!), I must say I like the book much better. There are quite a few thrills in it, psychological, visceral, and even sexual . . . (every man gets his turn with the nice country teacher, oh what fun). But this is no run of the mill thriller; the thing reads like it's actually true, and that is hard to do with such a far out plot. So I asked myself, How did William Diehl accomplish this? The answer is versimilitude. Put all of the spooky stuff aside, and you hold in your hands a well written legal investigation/courtroom drama. Diehl knows his way around the courtroom as well as the cigar smoke-filled political backrooms. Diehl's understanding of how the "game" is played--this is the backbone of the book, and while that is clicking on all cylinders, we are more likely to miss the occasional plot contrivance. A truly excellent book, down to the last word.
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