The Professor (McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #1)

If the author spent as much time in research, smart writing and intriguing story, rather than creative vulgarity, this could have been awesome. Don’t get me wrong, it’s your preference, but in this case it seems like he’s trying too hard to cover up bad writing by just being vulgar for its own sake. It’s a crazy rookie move.

The book was an easy read and had some unforeseen twists. For each positive quality there is, unfortunately, too many disappointing vulgarities, foul language and explicitly graphic sexual descriptions. Some things are better left out or inferred, rather than described in detail. Too bad the author chose to include all the dirty details instead of just writing a legal thriller.

I bought the first three books in this series because I am a fan of legal thrillers, but I didn\’t get past the second chapter of book one. This is not a book for Christians, nor for those who dislike the wanton use of profanity. Perhaps there should be a book rating system as there is for movies.

This is a pretty good read. I enjoyed it, and looked forward to reading it every night or opportunity I had to read. The basic storyline is about an aging (68 year old) college professor (law degree, but went into education rather than the courtroom). Pretty much wrote the book on admission of evidence – which comes into the plot later on. Due to changes in university leadership and politics, he\’s forced out, and not in a good way. The back story is that in the opening scenes of the book, there\’s a horrific accident when an entire family is hit by a truck and all of them die. This ultimately turns out to be a court case, and a family member of one of the victims seeks out the Professor for help in bringing it to trial. He\’s too old and hasn\’t practiced so he refers the case to one of his former students, with whom he\’d had a bad falling out earlier. Anyway, there\’s plenty of tension between the main characters, a huge oil and trucking company involved (led by an unscrupulous \”will do anything to win\” character). Ultimately the case goes to trial, and the young lawyer the case was referred to is in over his head against the big corporation and its big-time lawyer. So, \”the Professor\” comes to the rescue. The court scenes are pretty riveting. Not great literature, but an easy and enjoyable read. One minor irritation. I don\’t know how this got through the publisher\’s proofreading process, but the author literally goes over the top in using the phrase \”his stomach tightened.\” C\’mon, there\’s plenty of other phrases to express fear or frustration or anger, etc. In fact, he seems to have a fixation on other phrases involving the word \”stomach.\” I lost count of the number of occurrences. Other than that minor flaw, again, a good book.

I am totally surprised this is a first novel (despite a few typos). It is rather long and has a lot of backstory, but as a legal thriller it has continuing conflict and suspense and good pacing. What is more, both main characters, the Professor and his former student, start off flawed and awed. Yet there is an excellent character arc as they deal with their flaws and improve. Moreover, the writing is excellent. The only “big” flaw is that a particularly evil character appears to disappear from the story unpunished. But perhaps he is being saved for a later novel. As a California lawyer I was somewhat taken aback by what must be good Alabama practice (the author is an Alabama lawyer). For instance, the lawyers walk around the courtroom and are allowed to walk up to the witness box without a judge’s permission. This would excite a California bailiff, and cause a judicial frown at least. Also, it is a civil case stemming from violation of Federal criminal laws. I would expect a good attorney to try and sic the U.S. attorney on the malefactors if only for the free discovery and additional pressure on the defendants. But authors have poetic license and this is a great tale. If you like thriller trial novels at all buy this one. I am anxious to read the next novel in this series.

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