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dhilderbrand's review
3.0
I am a fan of his writing although when I first start sometimes I feel like he has overuses his thesaurus but by the end, I am enjoying the rhythm of his writing. This is similar to his other work. Strong, some suspense, fun characters with reasonable depth
weaselweader's review
4.0
Courtroom drama at its finest!
With Undue Influence, Steve Martini has penned a third successful entry in the Paul Madriani franchise first introduced in Compelling Evidence and Prime Witness.
Paul's wife, Nikki, pleaded with him as she lay dying of cancer to take care of her younger sister, Laurel Vega. Laurel and her ex-husband, state legislator, Jack Vega, have been warring with one another in a no-holds-barred nasty custody battle. When Jack's new trophy wife is murdered, the motive and all of the physical evidence seems to point to Laurel as the murderer. Against his own best legal judgment, Paul Madriani remains true to the wishes of his dead wife and assumes responsibility for Laurel Vega's defense against the charge of first-degree murder.
Like every great legal thriller, Martini fills your cup to the brim and positively overflows it with the subtle nuances of courtroom warfare and drama - dialogue, tricks, legalese, motions, delays, recesses, evidence, juries, objections, sidebars and processes. Martini unfolds a great plot with a superb ending twist in the courtroom environment and proves, as his colleague John Grisham said, that he is master of the legal thriller genre.
Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
With Undue Influence, Steve Martini has penned a third successful entry in the Paul Madriani franchise first introduced in Compelling Evidence and Prime Witness.
Paul's wife, Nikki, pleaded with him as she lay dying of cancer to take care of her younger sister, Laurel Vega. Laurel and her ex-husband, state legislator, Jack Vega, have been warring with one another in a no-holds-barred nasty custody battle. When Jack's new trophy wife is murdered, the motive and all of the physical evidence seems to point to Laurel as the murderer. Against his own best legal judgment, Paul Madriani remains true to the wishes of his dead wife and assumes responsibility for Laurel Vega's defense against the charge of first-degree murder.
Like every great legal thriller, Martini fills your cup to the brim and positively overflows it with the subtle nuances of courtroom warfare and drama - dialogue, tricks, legalese, motions, delays, recesses, evidence, juries, objections, sidebars and processes. Martini unfolds a great plot with a superb ending twist in the courtroom environment and proves, as his colleague John Grisham said, that he is master of the legal thriller genre.
Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
ncrabb's review
3.0
Paul Madriani promised his wife as she was dying (spoiler for previous books) that he would look after her sister, Laurel. Paul is now a single dad raising a seven-year-old girl, and Laurel indeed needs looking after.
She is in a custody battle with her former husband for their teenage children. The husband, a state legislator, traded Laurel in for a younger more top-heavy model, and the divorce proceedings have gotten rancorous and ugly. But Paul isn’t handling the divorce. He’s in the courtroom, but someone else is dealing with the case.
Then, the new trophy wife is murdered in her house, and Laurel Vega has left the state. Worse still, she was seen leaving the house where the murdered woman’s body was found.
This, then, is the account of Madriani’s efforts to clear his sister-in-law, and it is a twisty literally explosive story that will keep you pressing on to the back cover.
She is in a custody battle with her former husband for their teenage children. The husband, a state legislator, traded Laurel in for a younger more top-heavy model, and the divorce proceedings have gotten rancorous and ugly. But Paul isn’t handling the divorce. He’s in the courtroom, but someone else is dealing with the case.
Then, the new trophy wife is murdered in her house, and Laurel Vega has left the state. Worse still, she was seen leaving the house where the murdered woman’s body was found.
This, then, is the account of Madriani’s efforts to clear his sister-in-law, and it is a twisty literally explosive story that will keep you pressing on to the back cover.
ericwelch's review
3.0
I think Martini is better than Grisham, particularly his courtroom scenes. In Undue Influence, Paul Mondriani is defending is sister-in-law, Laurel Vega, who has been accused of murdering the new wife of her erst-while husband, a state legislator who is under investigation by the feds for bribery. Laure|’s two children become pawns in a tense drama that pits her attorney unwittingly against the mob and a local police lieutenant who hates the contents of his abdominal cavity. The evidence against Laurel is overwhelming ,and the case has some neat surprises for the reader.
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