The Arraignment

Rating:
Summary: Not the best one
Review: Don't you hate mystery books when about 100 pages from the end you figure out whodunit? That's exactly how it is with Steve Martini's "The Arraignment". This isn't a legal thriller, but rather a investigative Hardy Boys tale with many, many twists in the tale and generally, some weird, weird stuff popping up that, while making sense, requires the complete suspension of disbelief.

Martini an anvil-dropping author, which can slowly make you go crazy. He's so fond of writing something and then telling the reader what it means. For example, Martini will write an exchange very similar to the following:

"It is raining," Harry tells me. He's talking about the weather.

Read 300 pages of that and the reader will feel condescended to.

Tto make his thrillers more literary in value, he adds tons and tons of metaphors and similes that distract from his first person/present tense perspective.

Add on top of that, in this installment, Paul Madriani is so self-righteous, intelligent, and smug that he becomes absolutely insufferable. And oh yes, while Paul is traipsing around the jungles of Mexico, daughter Sarah is a complete afterthought, except for one misplaced paragraph towards the end. It's never a good sign when the reader is rooting for the hero of the novel to be dropped off the edge of a Mayan pyramid.

I've enjoyed Martini's books in the past, so this was quite the disappointment. "Compelling Evidence" and "Undue Influence" remain the most tightly plotted and well-paced of his novels.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: Heard the taped version of THE ARRAIGNMENT, a legal thriller
by Steve Martini . . . it again features a recurring character (defense
attorney Paul Madriani), yet this time there's more adventure
than courtroom drama--leaving me disappointed . . . also,
the plot was overly convoluted . . . it starts off with the murder
of a friend on a crowded city street and winds up on a quest
from California to the jungles of Mexico . . . the only saving
grace for me was in the fact that Joe Mantegna's reading was
excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Dana Rush loses height
Review: I picked up this paperback in the airport while my flight was delayed and had high hopes for it.

Like most have already said, the first half of the book looked good, but fell apart at the end.

This was the first book I have read by Mr. Martini and may be the last.

If you like this sort of book, go for David Baldacci instead.

Rating:
Summary: For Paul Madriani Fans - Probably A Better Movie Than Book
Review: If you are a Steve Martini - Paul Madriani fan, this latest book is worth your time but not up to his best work. If you are a new reader and are looking for legal mysteries that involve complicated cases and courtroom strategies, I would suggest that you read some of Martini's other books first. If you like action adventure with some legal twists, then you will enjoy this book and probably rate it four stars.

Nick Rush, friend and lawyer at a prestigious San Diego firm, approaches Paul Madriani to take on Gerald Metz, a client who supposedly poses a conflict of interest for Nick. After a conference with Metz, Paul declines and Metz and Nick are soon gunned down in front of the courthouse prior to Metz's grand jury testimony. Dana, Nick's trophy wife, requests that Paul investigate her insurance benefits, and interesting legal manueuvering ensues between Nick's employer, the insurance carrier, Dana, and Nick's former wife. This is vintage Paul Madriani (and Harry Hinds, his partner), clever and interesting. It also intoduces us to Adam Tolt, managing partner of Nick's firm whose apparent attempts to protect the firm's reputation and replace Nick lead to several interesting developments.

For various reasons including loyalty to his dead friend and inconsistencies regarding the events concerning Nick's death, Paul (with reluctant help from Harry) decides to supplement the police homicide investigation with his own efforts. Eventually additional violence ensues, and Paul and Adam follow the confusing trail of Metz and Nick and the other assorted unsavory individuals that Paul has unearthed to Mexico. While any of the individual incidences of violence and danger might be believable, the cumulative effect defies belief. Of course, almost nothing is what it appears, and misdirecton is rampant, both for the reader and the participants. Paul repeatedly and often unnecessarily puts himself in incredibly perilous situations, and often his escapes defy belief. This seems totally out of keeping with his character in previous books, especially given his concern for his role as sole parent for his daughter since the death of his wife. It almost seems as if Martini was writing this book with the goal of maximizing it's potential as a movie project and wanted to create additional complexity and action a la James Patterson.

While almost all the loose ends are tied together in the final chapter, and while the action and several clever plot twists kept me totally involved, my final reaction was one of disappointment. Steve Martini can undoubtedly write a good altough implausible action-adventure story, and the major elements of this story were well thought out. But I was in the end let down not just because it was not what I expected as a Paul Madriani fan, but because the result of the attempt to meld the two genres (legal mystery and action story) was less than the sum of the parts. It suffered from the conclusion being both unbelievable and complex, and my reaction upon finishing the book was disappointment even though in some ways justice and right prevailed.

Rating:
Summary: A lightweight Diversion
Review: It's been a long time since I've sat down and read a novel all the way through in a short period of time. This one was given to me by one of my sons as a Christmas gift, so I decided to give it a priority.

I had hoped that the author's credentials as a lawyer might develop some underpinning of credibility for the story, but rather it seems that Mr, Martini might do better to keep his legal pad writing restricted to briefs in the courtroom.

Another reviewer suggests that the last third of the book might have been inspired by a visit to Cancun, a place which I have enjoyed, and I agree. One of the building blocks of any good novel must include the suspension of the reader's belief, and I fear that I found myself suspending my belief that Mr. Martini really was a writer.

He introduces characters the way that Emeril adds his essence to a stew with a sudden "POW!", and then lets them evaporate when it appears he cannot think of anything further useful for them to do in the plot. He permits murder and mayhem to splatter his pages with blood, yet at a moment when the book might have been mercilully shortened, a naughty razor wielding man runs away without helping us out by slitting the throat of our protagonist.

I'm not quite sure why I gave this pup two stars -- perhaps it's because of my fondness for Cancun, and Chichen Itza. To the best of my knowledge, if you stay at the Moon Palace, you won't get sprayed by gunfire from a two-man ultra-light aircraft. Can such craft even fly?

Rating:
Summary: More sleuth than lawyer
Review: Paul Madriani and Harry Hinds come together in quasi-legal thriller. This book doesn't have the charm and tightness found in THE JURY. Much of the first third to half of the book is setup and a number of false clues.

The story starts out with Mandriani's friend Nick Rush getting gunned down in a drive by shooting. For the longest time you think it has something to do with drugs, but that's really just a side issue.

Then there is the problem of Nick's two wives and the life insurance. Margaret is an embittered shrew and Dana a blue eyed bimbo. Either one of them could have reason to kill Nick.

There is Adam Tolt, who was Nick's boss and seems to have an endless supply of money and influence. While all these things are factors in the book, you don't start getting into the meat of the stoy until about page 300 and the trip to Mexico.

It seemed like Mr. Martini changed his mind half way through the book as to what he wanted to accomplish. While the plot is looser than his better work, the keen eye for detail and great writing is still there. His way of describing things and Harry's character have always charmed me.

An enjoyable, if rocky read.

Rating:
Summary: Lively but, ultimately, implausible
Review: The best thing that I can say about THE ARRAIGNMENT is that it does not descend into yet another strained story about drug smuggling. Strained, perhaps, but not about drugs.

Author Steve Martini displays a thorough knowledge of laws and legal procedure, in addition to his lively imagination. As a result, he is able to craft a story that is quick-moving and compelling. Ultimately, however, the plot veers from simply unlikely to completely implausible.

The lawyer who is Martini's hero is almost too damned smart, smarter than an entire squad of New York City police detectives. Martini offers little motivation for the desperate need his hero is said to feel to solve the murder of a friend and, without motivation, the entire caper falls apart.

The hero also is far too willing to put himself at risk, especially for a character who is supposed to be the sole surviving parent of a teenage daughter. Toward the end of the mystery, the hero has a riff when he internally debates this same need with himself. This riff doesn't help make the plot more credible; instead, the reader actually can hear the author's editor saying that they must do better to provide rational motivation for the character.

The villain is predictable, the story is implausible and so is the hero, and the subplot about the murdered man's widow--hinted at throughout the novel--never is brought to any conclusion.

Other than these quibbles, THE ARRAIGNMENT is a swell read.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: This book was highly recommended but I was totally disappointed. It started out okay but then got boring. There was no character in the book that I cared about or frankly, how the story ended. It went 100 pages way to long. It was dragged out, to wordy. Not sure I would read his books again. After reading just a few pages, I would fall asleep. Found this book to be a great cure for insomnia.
I have read better murder mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: The Series Continues: The Arraignment by Steve Martini
Review: Those familiar with the character Paul Madriani from earlier novels know that he has one iron clad rule regarding the cases he takes. He never, ever takes cases with drug defendants. As a widower with a daughter, Sarah who is now fifteen, it simply isn't worth it to him. The complications and the greed involved in such cases could easily get a lawyer killed.

That is one of his first thoughts about a client that his old friend Nick Rush wants Paul to meet. Nick claims that he can't take the case because of a conflict of interest involving himself, the client, and Nick's law firm of Rocker, Dusha and Dewine. Nick has his hands full with the after effects of a divorce, a marriage to a trophy wife who wants it all, and interoffice politics at the law firm. Things aren't working out and Nick really needs Paul's help.

But when Paul meets the client, Gerald Metz, who is the target of a federal grand jury, things don't ring true. Metz is a general contractor and claims that he was working on a deal with two sons of a powerful Mexico businessman to bring heavy equipment down from San Diego to Southern Mexico to build a resort. This does not make sense to Paul considering the economics involved and the story gets worse as Metz explains that the deal never went through but he was paid incredible amounts of money in consulting fees. Fees paid far in excess of what would be normal and were not handled in the proper manner. To Paul, it looks like a case of money laundering and most likely necessary because it has something to do with the drug trade.

Paul refuses the case and his suspicions seem correct a short time later as Nick and Metz are gunned down on the steps of the courthouse in a drive by. Nick feels responsible in the death of his friend because he did not take the case. Driven by guilt he begins to investigate and eventually the trail leads to Mexico and a violent confrontation at the top of what is left of an ancient Mayan Temple Pyramid.

Overall, this is an enjoyable novel that is amazing slow to get going. The latest in the series featuring Paul Mandraini does not shed any new light on the character. Sarah is non-existent in this novel, mentioned only in passing, as are several other characters from earlier novels. Additionally, this novel is written in a more distant, objective style that the earlier ones in this series which may also relate to the much slower than normal start to the work.

Those that stick with this novel which could be read independent of the series, will find this 400 page novel well worth the effort. The last 100 pages, which lead to the violent confrontation at the top of a Mayan Pyramid Temple, are full of twists and turns and plenty of action. Those last 100 pages alone make this novel well worth reading and very hard to put down.