The Prosecutors: A Year in the Life of a District Attorney's Office

Rating:
Summary: The Prosecutors
Review: An absolutely outstanding writer! This is a book you can't put down, but don't want to finish reading because you don't want the pleasure to end. The writer captures your interest from the very beginning and weaves his story through multiple cases, which are all in the legal process at the same time, but he does not lose the reader. His descriptions of tragic cases never reek of sensationalism, nor are they gory, yet the writer's style gets the message of mayhem across and exudes concern for victims' families without being schmaltzy. This is an incredible insider's view of all the players in local Sacramento law. What an eye opener. A peepers delight. What an incredible year of investigation this man lived! What a flawless re-creation of those experiences! From time to time the reader has to remind themself that this is not fiction, this is reality, this occurred. What he writes is historical. Facts.

While this is his first effort, this book leaves the reader yearning for his next novel. Please don't make us wait too long.

Rating:
Summary: The Prosecutors
Review: An absolutely outstanding writer! This is a book you can't put down, but don't want to finish reading because you don't want the pleasure to end. The writer captures your interest from the very beginning and weaves his story through multiple cases, which are all in the legal process at the same time, but he does not lose the reader. His descriptions of tragic cases never reek of sensationalism, nor are they gory, yet the writer's style gets the message of mayhem across and exudes concern for victims' families without being schmaltzy. This is an incredible insider's view of all the players in local Sacramento law. What an eye opener. A peepers delight. What an incredible year of investigation this man lived! What a flawless re-creation of those experiences! From time to time the reader has to remind themself that this is not fiction, this is reality, this occurred. What he writes is historical. Facts.

While this is his first effort, this book leaves the reader yearning for his next novel. Please don't make us wait too long.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Journalism Revived
Review: Gary Delsohn proves himself as an outstanding journalist in the classic sense with this book. He captures the essense of the cases but more importantly, the thoughts and feelings of the women and men who tirelessly work to uphold justice in our communities. This is an excellent book that puts a very human face on the large and seemingly inhumane criminal justice system.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Journalism Revived
Review: Gary Delsohn proves himself as an outstanding journalist in the classic sense with this book. He captures the essense of the cases but more importantly, the thoughts and feelings of the women and men who tirelessly work to uphold justice in our communities. This is an excellent book that puts a very human face on the large and seemingly inhumane criminal justice system.

Rating:
Summary: The author should write but not read his books.
Review: I grabbed this audio book for a recent trip and soon tossed it aside because the author read his own book. He rushes through the text and does not enunciate clearly. I doubt that I'll ever try the print version because what I did hear was more about the criminal & the crime than the workings of the DA's office. It's possible that this changes later in the book but I didn't get far enough to tell. The author should seriously consider hiring a professional reader like Scott Brick if he decides to offer any more audio books.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I'm only halfway in to this new book, surprised no other reviews out there yet since I know a lot of folks in Sacramento area have been reading it. Sacramento District Attorney gave author Gary Delsohn incredible access for his year long project. Working with the lawyers and detectives is shown to be just about like any other workplace - there are arrogant, passionate and sometimes dimwitted people working in every type of job in our lives. Just because someone is a doctor or lawyer isn't reason to assume they can tell the difference between night and day, or at least agree on it! A great read - my wife wants me to hurry up and finish so she can read it.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: This was a disappointment. The opening sequence involving the bread store robbery was an excellent 'hook.' However, fluctations from past to present tense in the narrative, often times within the same paragraph, jarred the reading flow. It was distracting.

In fairness, as the author is first a journalist, the stylistic conventions of the Associated Press Style Manual concerning timeless facts, and the use of present and past tense may have weighed on his writing. Nevertheless, in good writing, the reader glides from sequence to sequence caught up in the story, unmindful of transitions.

As for the characterizations, they were derivative, unoriginally evoking the psuedo hard-bitten prosecutorial cliches better found in gumshoe novels or TV's "Law and Order." Chief Deputy D.A., O'Mara, for instance, is the prototypical "ball-breaker" D.A.