ABIDING CONVICTION

3.5 stars out of 5

I'm a huge fan of this kind of book - courtroom drama, intricacies of legal strategy and investigations and, of course, a bang-up ending. But while I rather enjoyed the star of the show, attorney Dutch Francis, I was a little underwhelmed by the story and ending. Make that especially the ending.

Reluctantly, Dutch has agreed to represent a New Hampshire judge who's been charged with murdering his wife. As his apprehension grows over taking over responsibility he's not sure he wants, his wife Ginny - a popular TV news anchor - suddenly goes missing. Given a secret they share, her disappearance is even more disturbing, if that's possible; so of course he's distraught and unable to fully focus on the trial he doesn't want to be part of in the first place. The judge assigned to the case, however, is totally unsympathetic and denies his requests for both recusal and continuance of the trial.

The story, then, veers off in two directions: Dutch's investigation and defense of the judge in court and his attempt to save his wife from an unknown fate at the hands of an unknown kidnapper. Before long, he begins to get manila envelopes that convince him she's in real danger - but the police investigation isn't going much of anywhere. Finally, they all start to think it may  not be Ginny the kidnapper really wants - it's Dutch. And maybe, just maybe, it's related to his defense of the judge.

All good, yes? Well, mostly. There are not nearly enough courtroom scenes to suit me - someone who, as I said at the beginning, loves learning about strategy and courtroom techniques. Dutch spends far more time arguing with the police, who he thinks are not fully committed to finding his wife, than he does with prosecution witnesses when they take the stand. I'd like to have learned more about what Ginny went through during her kidnapping (the contents of the manila envelopes sent to Dutch offer paltry clues, but otherwise that information is virtually nonexistent). The ending seems abrupt, coming with a decision that almost seems to gloss over everything that both Ginny and Dutch experienced; it's hard for me to believe that any couple would come to terms in such short order with all that happened to them both. Admittedly, I tried really hard not to see a titch of a hot-button political issue peeking through here as well, but I'm willing to accept that's just my imagination going a bit wild.

All that said, for the most part I really enjoyed this book - and for sure, I didn't feel at a disadvantage because I had not read the first two books in this series. It's a solid legal thriller (just without any in-your-face thrills) that kept me entertained and I'm sure will do the same for other readers. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy - and mea culpa for "overbooking" my review copies and missing the release date by a couple of days.

Abiding Conviction by Stephen M. Murphy (Oceanview Publishing, July 2022); 289 pp.