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A review by weaselweader
Mystery Writers of America Presents the Prosecution Rests: New Stories about Courtrooms, Criminals, and the Law by Mystery Writers of America Inc
4.0
First rate legal and police drama ... LAW AND ORDER on the printed page!
Linda Fairstein, herself a prosecutor in Manhattan for 25 years, has compiled an anthology of legal shorts written by some of the most well known and most exciting members of the Mystery Writers of America. If you like legal thrillers, police procedurals, courtroom drama, judicial hanky-panky, the ethics of criminal aggressive defense and prosecution and the twists in our modern system of jurisprudence, then it's a sure bet that THE PROSECUTION RESTS will thrill you to your toes.
One of my favourites in the collection, for example, DESIGNER JUSTICE, tells the chilling tale of a top-flight defense lawyer whose cross examination is so perfectly focused and constructed that the jury has no alternative but to acquit the defendant. However, it turns out that the person footing the bills for the defense has their own agenda that probably isn't quite on the same page as that of the newly released "innocent" murderer. QUALITY OF MERCY, a topical story about whether human euthanasia constitutes homicide, ends with a thoroughly entertaining and utterly blindside twist. NIGHT COURT, one of the shortest entries in the collection, tells a fine story about, shall we call it, "alternative" justice systems. The collection closes with GOING UNDER, an amusing ironic tale of a sting designed to apprehend a dentist whose practice is definitely not on the up and up! Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. When you open THE PROSECUTION RESTS, you can put your feet up and look forward to several evenings of entertainment over 22 different stories.
Great drama, great story-telling, great twists, great characters and great dialogue ... all in all, an anthology that is enjoyable from first page to last. I hope that Ms Fairstein will consider putting together a second collection to follow up this winner. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Linda Fairstein, herself a prosecutor in Manhattan for 25 years, has compiled an anthology of legal shorts written by some of the most well known and most exciting members of the Mystery Writers of America. If you like legal thrillers, police procedurals, courtroom drama, judicial hanky-panky, the ethics of criminal aggressive defense and prosecution and the twists in our modern system of jurisprudence, then it's a sure bet that THE PROSECUTION RESTS will thrill you to your toes.
One of my favourites in the collection, for example, DESIGNER JUSTICE, tells the chilling tale of a top-flight defense lawyer whose cross examination is so perfectly focused and constructed that the jury has no alternative but to acquit the defendant. However, it turns out that the person footing the bills for the defense has their own agenda that probably isn't quite on the same page as that of the newly released "innocent" murderer. QUALITY OF MERCY, a topical story about whether human euthanasia constitutes homicide, ends with a thoroughly entertaining and utterly blindside twist. NIGHT COURT, one of the shortest entries in the collection, tells a fine story about, shall we call it, "alternative" justice systems. The collection closes with GOING UNDER, an amusing ironic tale of a sting designed to apprehend a dentist whose practice is definitely not on the up and up! Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. When you open THE PROSECUTION RESTS, you can put your feet up and look forward to several evenings of entertainment over 22 different stories.
Great drama, great story-telling, great twists, great characters and great dialogue ... all in all, an anthology that is enjoyable from first page to last. I hope that Ms Fairstein will consider putting together a second collection to follow up this winner. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss