The Law Of Second Chances
James Sheehan
Publisher: Corgi
ISBN: 978-0-552-15495-6
December 4, 2008
James Sheehan’s follow up to the phenomenally successful legal thriller Mayor Of Lexington Avenue is a book of exceptional quality, pace and intrigue. Tight prose, believable characters, terrific dialogue and three stories entwined within overall objective there is little else a reader can ask for, surely?
Henry Wilson has been on death row for seventeen years and is eight weeks away from meeting his end by lethal injection for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Meanwhile small-time crook, Benny Avrile, is being hunted by the cops for what they believe is his part in a high-profile robbery that ended in murder. The clock is ticking and if both men are to escape death, they need a good lawyer, fast. Trouble is the one they have has problems of his own.
Sheehan’s lawyer, Jack Tobin, is surely the most credible advocate not to have been penned by Michael Connelly. Intense, thoughtful, clever and compassionate, Tobin might seem like a stereotypical Petrocelli-type figure but he has an edginess that is quite exquisite and is a welcome addition to a world where often such figures become ordinary.
With a superb sense of place enriching almost every page, it is above all else the story – or stories – that keep the reader engaged without ever dipping into the realms of over-sentimentality which, given some of the subject matter, might have been easy to do, and so delivers a hard-hitting, action packed drama that is a delight from first to last.
break the rules as I see fit.” - Chris High 2003.