The perfect witness

From Los Angeles Times reporter Siegel comes this first-rate legal thriller, the story of two ex-partners (and former friends) reunited by a brutal murder. Greg Monarch and Ira Sullivan used to run a moderately successful law firm, until the death of his son sent Ira spiraling downward into drugs and depression. Now Ira is accused of murder, and Greg, who years ago turned away from criminal law, is defending him--without being entirely sure that his former partner is innocent. Although it's fiction, the novel features characters vivid enough to be real people and a crime vicious enough to have come from the pages of a newspaper. (One of Siegel's previous books, A Death in White Bear Lake, was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.) Readers of legal thrillers will want to pick up this title as soon as it's available. (Reviewed December 15, 1997)0345413075David Pitt

Los Angeles Times reporter Siegel makes a bumpy but ultimately successful transition from true crime (A Death in White Bear Lake) to fiction in a novel that reads like two separate but wildly unequal legal thrillers. In the book's first, rather listless part, legal eagle Greg Monarch fails to save his down-and-out former law partner, Ira Sullivan, when sociopathic femme fatale Sandy Polson accuses him of murdering the postmaster in the central California town of La Graciosa. In the gripping, emotionally charged second section of the book, Monarch delves into the corruption behind Polson's tainted testimony and forces a retrial, destroying the lives of several prominent government officials in the process. The villains include a corrupt DA, a morally ambiguous detective and several corporate types from a local nuclear plant who seek to pin the murder on Sullivan after his watchdog legal activities threaten to expose the plant's environmental hazards. Siegel conveys a strong sense of place, and he convincingly captures the conflict between flagging idealism and hard reality in his protagonists, most of whom are middle-aged. Several of the plot twists are genuinely surprising, but the author asks readers to wade through quite a bit of mundane prose to get to the final payoff. The pace of the early material mars this otherwise compelling debut. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Greg Monarch's quiet life as a small-town lawyer is shattered when he is asked to defend his former partner, Ira Sullivan, on a murder charge. Unable to turn his back on an old friend, Greg reluctantly agrees to handle the case. However, he soon finds himself involved in both an ever-widening conspiracy and a moral dilemma. As Greg uncovers a complex web of government corruption and deceit, he is faced with the necessity of bending his own ethical standards and manipulating the star witness, a pathological liar, in order to free Ira. Siegel, author of the nonfiction A Death in White Bear Lake (LJ 6/15/90), offers a rather cynical but realistic view of the machinations behind the legal system combined with a collection of eccentric characters. The result is an intriguing blend of mystery, suspense, and courtroom drama that should appeal to readers of those genres. Recommended for most popular fiction collections.‘Barbara E. Kemp, SUNY at Albany Libs. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A dogged defense attorney's running battle with an unimpeachable prosecution witness raises disturbing questions about the nature of the judicial process, in this first novel by crime reporter Siegel (Shades of Gray, 1992, etc.). At first Greg Monarch thinks the evidence against his former law partner Ira Sullivan, now one step up from a drugged-out bum, is a joke. The pistol that killed neighboring postmaster Bob Wilson is found on Sandy Polson, not on Ira, along with $33,000 wrapped in one of the postmaster's towels. Sandy's explanation: Ira came rushing out of the post office and gave her the gun and the money to hold, and she was too frightened and confused to say no. The tale is incredible, of course--but she tells it, and the many stories that follow, with an absolute conviction that makes her the perfect witness. Sandy is one smooth piece of work. Whenever Greg threatens to trip her up on a detail, she just weaves his information into a new version just as seamless as the last. And when a dim corroborating witness, Paul Platt, phones Greg to tell him he's been lying under pressure from hungry D.A. Dennis Taylor, Greg--ever the boy scout--refuses to see him, then agrees, only to have Sandy and Taylor turn Paul around again, and Taylor haul Greg up on charges before the California bar. Greg struggles through Ira's trial trying to figure out the case's connection to a runaway jury's earlier rampage against the nearby Devil's Peak nuclear facility. But he gets stonewalled at every turn; he's no match in the courtroom for an accomplished liar like Sandy, and the jury takes only two hours to convict his client. Then things get really interesting. Not a whodunit, but a sharp, unsparing exploration of the conflicts between justice and advocacy in the adversarial system Greg's inherited from the Founding Fathers.

Greg Monarch's quiet life as a small-town lawyer is shattered when he is asked to defend his former partner, Ira Sullivan, on a murder charge. Unable to turn his back on an old friend, Greg reluctantly agrees to handle the case. However, he soon finds himself involved in both an ever-widening conspiracy and a moral dilemma. As Greg uncovers a complex web of government corruption and deceit, he is faced with the necessity of bending his own ethical standards and manipulating the star witness, a pathological liar, in order to free Ira. Siegel, author of the nonfiction A Death in White Bear Lake (LJ 6/15/90), offers a rather cynical but realistic view of the machinations behind the legal system combined with a collection of eccentric characters. The result is an intriguing blend of mystery, suspense, and courtroom drama that should appeal to readers of those genres. Recommended for most popular fiction collections. Barbara E. Kemp, SUNY at Albany Libs. Copyright 1998 Library Journal Reviews

Los Angeles Times reporter Siegel makes a bumpy but ultimately successful transition from true crime (A Death in White Bear Lake) to fiction in a novel that reads like two separate but wildly unequal legal thrillers. In the book's first, rather listless part, legal eagle Greg Monarch fails to save his down-and-out former law partner, Ira Sullivan, when sociopathic femme fatale Sandy Polson accuses him of murdering the postmaster in the central California town of La Graciosa. In the gripping, emotionally charged second section of the book, Monarch delves into the corruption behind Polson's tainted testimony and forces a retrial, destroying the lives of several prominent government officials in the process. The villains include a corrupt DA, a morally ambiguous detective and several corporate types from a local nuclear plant who seek to pin the murder on Sullivan after his watchdog legal activities threaten to expose the plant's environmental hazards. Siegel conveys a strong sense of place, and he convincingly captures the conflict between flagging idealism and hard reality in his protagonists, most of whom are middle-aged. Several of the plot twists are genuinely surprising, but the author asks readers to wade through quite a bit of mundane prose to get to the final payoff. The pace of the early material mars this otherwise compelling debut. (Jan.) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews