My rating:
Amazon rejected this review as violation of community standards. (Ask them, I'm baffled)
This is a legal suspense drama, a legal thriller with a plot similar to the Erin Brockovich movie. This book does a number of nice things I can tell you about without spoiling a thing.
I particularly liked the frank discussion of law from Mr. Victor Methos. A real life attorney with plenty of experience.
Early in the book Mr. Methos boldly tells the reader some painful truth about our legal system. It's about the money. It's almost as refined as insurance actuary tables.
Juries of peers, blind justice, everyone equal…, these are all myths that may have held actual meaning in early USA history -- but today justice is a performance being "play-acted" as if it is run any different from the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship. Maybe Amazon didn't like Mr. Metho's implied clarity about this point?
If justice happens to seep in along the way from time to time, then the illusion is all the better for it. I appreciated this "reality check". So hard to find any truth in real life these days, it seems fiction is the only place where reality actually shows up anymore… and we know it is fiction… true or not.
This novel is essentially the Erin Brockovich plot and theme. It has enough differences, character driven choices, and twists to make it special. Mr Methos has the personal background and writing skills to make it worth your time, as well.
Like many legal thrillers, this novel highlights the fact that our legal system has very little to do with "justice". The epigraph is:
 |
| Solon |
"Justice will not come until those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are. — Solon, 560 BC"It has only been 2580 years since this fact was recorded. That today isn't "different" from that ancient time is probably tragic. Just different people playing the same roles.
Noah Byron is our protagonist in this story. He has become the powerful wealthy lawyer he's been driven to become. As things are often done, someone who knows someone asks for a favor and the person who knows someone says, "Do me a favor".
Noah, not wanting to do them a favor, agrees just the same. The plan for the favor forms in his mind. He'll give it 15 minutes. A brief visit to some company executive about the complaint, sort it out, or get enough info to tell the "friend of a friend", there's nothing there worth doing.
Noah can easily calculate in his head who is invisible, who is literally worthless, and who it is who can get his firm an easy and healthy payday. Before he calls the company executive he knows that this "favor" is a dead end… if lucky he may earn the firm a few hundred dollars and change at best…
But like all good books -- this isn't just about an impossible-to-solve problem, it is about a person "becoming" as well.
A metamorphosis.
When Noah arrives at the company for his 5-minute informal chat with the COO, he's ushered into their conference room where he is met by 5 of the most powerful attorneys from the top law firm in the entire state of Utah. They are condescending, rude, and disrespectful.
Noah worked hard to make his law firm respectable. He has a remarkable winning record in trial cases. He thought this "favor" would be settled politely, quickly, without any fuss, in minutes.
Stories like this usually have a catalyst: an insult, attempted intimidation, and along the journey produces something very moving like… "When I'm around you, I'm a better me."
Noah is the moneymaker in his law firm and everyone in the firm knows it. So when he becomes too emotionally involved in a losing case, or at best, quick settlement case… it is not only his partners who are beginning to sweat bullets. Noah is who feeds the 70 people at that firm. They in turn are feeding their families; keeping them happy. Noah's being emotionally involved and stuck in a no-win case, that wasn't worth 15 minutes of his time to begin with... is big trouble.
Joel, a promising kid, and his mother, Rebecca, are the other side of the equation. In the equation that makes lawsuits worth a lawyer's time, the equation that defines the price of a hand, leg, or life -- Joel is not even a person, regardless how much Rebecca loves her son. These are entirely invisible people. They are worth nothing. They are An Invisible Client.
I hope I've lit your fuse and this is enough spoiler material to spark your interest. I recommend you pick up the ebook and the whispersync audiobook companion narrated by Alexander Cendese.
In college study techniques, decades ago, I learned we retain information better when we engage more of our senses with the material. Reading along while Alexander Cendese was performing the text was an exceptional experience. I'll be looking to see what other books are narrated by Mr. Cendese in the future. And Victor Methos, like John Grisham, is now on my reader's radar.
I read this book in 3 sessions between Saturday, May 23, & Friday, May 29, 2020. This book and audiobook were free via Prime Membership at Amazon.
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