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Summary: D. W. BUFFA -- A GREAT LEGAL MIND
Review: If you like legal thrillers set in courtrooms, then who better to read than an author who has been a defense attorney for ten years. Buffa isn't your run-of-the-mill attorney turned author. His characters are a step above the rest and his storylines keep you guessing. While reading his books, you are as unsure of a guilty/not guilty verdict as are the attorneys prosecuting and defending the cases.In this book, Joe Antonelli, who was a defense attorney in Buffa's first novel "The Defense", resurfaces -- this time as a prosecuting attorney. Those of us who left Joe off, after reading The Defense, weren't sure if he would ever return to practicing law. He was so disenchanted by the events surrounding his last case, that he went into retirement. Fortunately for the reader, he is convinced to reenter the courtroom by another mentor and friend, Judge Horace Woolner. Since this case is so close to home for the Portland D.A.'s office, Antonelli is brought in as a special prosecutor. It turns out that Woolner has received information that could implicate the city's deputy district attorney in his own wife's death. Up until the verdict is given by the jury, you're not sure which way it's going to go. Of course, you'll have to read the book to witness one of the best legal minds out there today. And, just when you think that this one case may just put Joe over the edge again, he is asked to defend Horace's wife who has now been arrested in connection with the death of a member of a prominent Portland family, who also happens to be her "good" friend. Buffa gives us two mysteries in one in The Prosecution. I read his first book The Defense a few years ago and was immediately drawn to the main character Joe Antonelli. He's ruthless yet sensitive, educated but not overbearing and very, very vulnerable at this point in his life. I look forward to entering the courtroom once again with Joe Antonelli in the future. If I could give him one piece of advice, after reading these two books, it would be to pick better mentors and friends!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Son of THE DEFENSE
Review: In THE DEFENSE Antonelli learns that no one, even a person of intelligence and integrity, is perfect. In THE PROSECUTION Antonelli learns that lesson. Again. Why does Buffa bother to construct characters in one book, transport them to the second, only to show they were never what they seemed? I suppose in the next in the series Antonelli will hang himself to complete the massacre. [spoiler coming here, so beware] The depiction of Horace as less than a full human because he is legless is cheap. It's a turnabout on the level with Starling's in HANNIBAL.
Rating: 
Summary: Smooth, Seamless Courtroom Drama
Review: Joseph Antonelli used to be a defense attorney and a darn good one at that. He became disillusioned and packed it all in after telling a witness to lie on the stand in order to get an innocent man acquitted. Now he's being asked to return to court in a special case, but this time as the prosecutor. The accused is the chief deputy district attorney, Marshall Goodwin, and he has been charged with conspiring to murder his wife. We end up getting two cases for the price of one, with Antonelli being asked to defend the wife of an old friend, immediately the first case is decided. Quick as a flash he changes hats from prosecutor, back to his familiar role as defense attorney. From this point on, the plot changes from a straightforward case to one of intrigue with suspects being thrown up left, right and centre. For a book written about and largely being set in, one trial or another, we seem to move at breakneck speed (unlike the judicial process it represents). By this I mean that we don't get bogged down by irrelevant side stories or observations. Everything is nicely tied in to the case at hand which keeps things nice and tight. The story moves along seamlessly as each case unfolds and I found it a very entertaining courtroom drama.
Rating: 
Summary: Could Be Better
Review: Mr Joseph Antonelli was a brilliant defense attorney who had never lost a case. He was persuaded to come out of his retirement to prosecute a deputy district attorney for hiring a someone to murder his wife. Joseph Antonelli had never once doubted his own ability to win once he took up a case, but that did not mean that truth and justice would always prevail. The book had proven to be disappointing. I struggled through the first half of the book. While there were brilliant sparks during the courtroom argument, those failed to lift the story which was otherwise shallow and unexciting. I also remained neutral towards the central character, Joseph Antonelli. The book was more a narration of the trial and failed to provide insight into his personality.
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Summary: Buffa You Done It Again
Review: This book is a very good book. I like the way the book takes off into one case and in a twist heads into another case. You get 2 great stories for the price of one. The stories are very well written and holds on to you, keeps you in suspense. I like to guess who did it, can you. The Judgement is also an excellent book. I hope that Buffa continues to write. I am waiting for the next book. I know you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a legal thriller
Review: This genre is generally braindead, but D.W. Buffa's "The Prosecution" makes the best of a bad hand by playing up the full intensity of courtroom drama, making the events and consequences of a criminal trial alive and threatening to the reader. While throughout the book intensity is banked by the character's inherent stability and need for clear-cut mandates, during the trial sequences we see the traditional murder mystery hero trade dodging bullets and fisticuffs for outwitting a number of traps only obvious to those who spend time in courtrooms. In this the book comes alive. The rest is fairly predictable, but executed with good editing (tight text) and reasonable expectation transferred to the reader. Characters outside the main three are mostly plastic stick figures who wander by and wave plot objects, and the frame-of-focus of the lead character limits scenery, background, setting to minimalist devices. Despite these genre-limitations, however, this book remains an entertaining read. Warning: politics of racial pity afoot in choice of characters and dilemmas. It wasn't to my taste. Black people don't need pity, and white people don't need to get caught up in giving pity to others and being morosely self-critical.
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