Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Tenth Case by Joseph Teller. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
The Tenth Case by Joseph Teller
A Jaywalker Mystery
Mira Books (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7783-2605-5 (0778326055)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2605-2 (9780778326052)
Publication Date: October 2008
List Price: $7.99
Review: Police procedurals abound -- good, bad and indifferent. Now, Joseph Teller’s stellar, The Tenth Case, sets the standard for defense attorney procedurals. Drawing on Teller’s thirty-five year career as a criminal defense attorney, the novel is the first in his projected series starring Harrison J. Walker, a hard-headed, soft-hearted criminal lawyer known in the courts and on the streets as “Jaywalker.” With his commitment to getting his clients a “not guilty” verdict, and a success rate of over ninety percent, he’s the kind of guy you want defending you, guilty or not.
Although he’s eminently successful in getting his clients acquitted, Jaywalker’s got a major problem. His reputation as “a renegade among renegades” has finally caught up with him, especially for an alleged sexual indiscretion, and he is being suspended from practicing law for the next three years. In the meantime, however, he can complete ten of the seventeen cases he listed as primary concerns. The first nine he cleans up in record time but the tenth, a murder case, becomes his make or break, both professionally and personally, and is the substance for the novel.
What distinguishes Teller’s novel is its focus on telling the story based on the procedures and protocols a defense attorney invokes to defend his client, in this case a stunningly beautiful, petite, twenty-six-year old former client of his, Samara Moss aka Samantha Musgrove, now accused of murdering her seventy-year-old ailing husband, allegedly for the proceeds of a multimillion dollar insurance policy. In defending her, Jaywalker, who is “closing in on fifty” has to overcome two obstacles. One is his attraction to her. The other is an apparently iron-clad case against her. And while he reluctantly resists the sexual temptations she tosses his way with his promises to wait until “after”, he meticulously builds a case for her defense, taking the readers through the details of the procedures for dealing with the police and prosecutors, selecting a jury of sympathetic citizens, citing relevant statutes, preparing his potty-mouthed client for her trial, and strategizing on how best to cast suspicion on others and raise reasonable doubt in the jurors’ minds about the bloody murder weapon wrapped in Moss’s blood-soaked blouse and hidden in her bathroom, to which only she had access.
Besides being a cracker-jack of a page-turning mystery with a surprising twist of an ending, Teller’s story provides an insightful background setting for a courtroom drama involving a master manipulator, a straight-up, competent prosecutor and a street-wise former prostitute adept at getting her way with older men. With The Tenth Case, “Jaywalker,” suspended from the bar or not, definitely gets the green light for more of the same in Teller’s projected series.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of The Tenth Case and to Planned Television Arts for providing a copy of the book for the review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
If you are interested in purchasing The Tenth Case from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. The Tenth Case (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.
Synopsis (from the publisher): Criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker, has just been suspended for using "creative" tactics and receiving "gratitude" in the courtroom stairwell from a client charged with prostitution. Convincing the judge that his other clients are counting on him, Jaywalker is allowed to complete ten cases. But it's the last case that truly tests his abilities -- and his acquittal record.
Samara Moss -- young, petite and sexy as hell -- stabbed her husband in the heart. Or so everyone believes. Having married the elderly billionaire when she was an eighteen-year-old former prostitute, Samara appears to be the clichéd gold digger. But Jaywalker knows all too well that appearances can be deceiving. Who else could have killed the billionaire? Has Samara been framed? Or is Jaywalker just driven by his need to win his clients' cases -- and this particular client's undying gratitude?
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