Clifford Irving's Legal Novels - 02 - FINAL ARGUMENT - a Legal Thriller

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A selection of the Literary Guild and a New York Times best-seller. "A courtroom thriller, a mean streets thriller, and an Everyman study of good and evil all rolled into one. And every part of it is terrific. What a wonderful piece of storytelling."-- Donald Westlake, The New York Times Ted Jaffe, a Florida district attorney, sends Darryl Morgan, a convicted murderer, to Death Row. Ten years later, now in a lucrative private practice, Ted returns to the same courtroom in a desperate attempt to save Morgan's life. Connie Zide, the widow of the murdered man, a beautiful older woman whom Ted has loved previously with a rare passion, stands in his way. A masterly tale of murder, courtroom justice, marital love and infidelity, FINAL ARGUMENT is set among beachside multimillionaires and features the rarest of heroes - a criminal lawyer with a conscience. Can Ted Jaffe represent a murderer he once prosecuted? The legal establishment wants to disbar him for it. Can Ted deal with his past loves and indiscretions? FINAL ARGUMENT is about his battle - at the risk of career, marriage, and personal safety - to free a man he believes he has grievously wronged. The London Daily Express hailed it as "a spellbinding courtroom drama." Kirkus Reviews said: "A potent threat to your reserves of midnight oil." Publishers Weekly wrote: "This superior thriller is a top example of the genre." "Only a handful of American authors have ever been able to transform murder and infidelity into poetry, and Clifford Irving is one of those writers ... Not to be missed - this book has best-seller stamped on every page."-- Donald Porter, Mystery News "Clifford Irving owes me two nights of sleep. What a deep, rich, dazzlingly written novel." -- Ernest Lehman, author of THE SOUND OF MUSIC screenplay. "Two cliffhanger trials, a moral crisis, romantic love, sexual issues ... it's all here." -- Mail on Sunday (London) From Publishers WeeklyIrving's 11th novel (after Trial ) is a fast-moving legal thriller noteworthy for its virtuoso interweaving of story lines, numerous plot twists and superior characterizations. At age 48, Ted Jaffe seems set for life: he's a partner at one of Florida's most prestigious law firms, and has a devoted wife and two children who love him. Then Elroy Lee, arrested on a cocaine charge, phones Jaffe because his name looks familiar in the Sarasota Yellow Pages. Lee testified 12 years earlier in a case involving the murder of rich Floridian Solomon Zide; Jaffe, then a state prosecutor, obtained the conviction of a young black man named Darryl Morgan who still sits on death row. Facts now suggest that Lee lied on the stand, but if the trial is reopened, Jaffe's wife would find out that he was having an affair with Zide's socialite wife, Connie. Jaffe ponders why he became a lawyer and races for a new trial before Morgan's fast-approaching execution date. Culminating in an edge-of-the-seat courtroom showdown with plenty of surprises, this superior thriller is a top example of the genre. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club alternate. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsHell hath no fury like the women Irving's lawyer heroes love and leave. This time, Ted Jaffee, a former prosecutor now growing fat at a Sarasota partnership, will rue the day he ever laid hands on Connie Zide, whose wealthy husband Solly was supposedly killed by a man Ted prosecuted 12 years ago--but who, new evidence suggests, may be innocent. The unsavory source of the new evidence is Elroy Lee, a.k.a. James Lee Elroy, who tries to barter his way out of a coke possession charge with the admission that his testimony against fellow-inmate Darryl Morgan was bought and paid for by crooked cop Floyd Nickerson, the man who also testified that Darryl had confessed to him even though Darryl denied in court he had done so. With every reason to avoid returning to the scene--he'd broken off with Connie even before her husband was shot; his realtor wife Toba is going through tough times and doesn't need the revelation of his old affair; his son Alan is just starting on the drug-using road that could make him another Elroy Lee unless he gets prompt, decisive help; even his partners in Sarasota make it clear they disapprove--Ted is nonetheless drawn to the sullen man he'd put away for a dozen years, and vows to reopen his case. Key witnesses who haven't disappeared stonewall or suddenly die; Ted's mentors and colleagues are aghast at his switch from prosecuting to defending Darryl; and Ted's own client, on first meeting him, tries to kill him. If you think all this slows Ted down from seeing that justice is done, you haven't read many books like this. Not as fresh or resourceful as Irving's last take on a similar subject (Trial, 1990), but still a potent threat to your reserves of midnight oil. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.