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THE
JURY MASTER
By Robert Dugoni
(Warner Books: $24.95)
Reviewed by: Patricia
Ann Jones
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David Sloane, a criminal defense attorney can grab a jury and make it
dance. He's successful beyond most of his colleagues' wildest dreams.
His only barrier to his phenomenal career success is his conscience. The
only barrier to his personal happiness is an event in his past so
horrible his mind has chosen to forget it completely until he receives a
phone call from a man who is later found dead. A man Sloane can only
vaguely remember meeting. Without further warning, the Jury Master's
life is propelled into a whirlwind that shatters lives from San
Francisco to Washington, D.C.
Joe Branick, the special assistant and personal friend to the
President of the United States phones Sloane, then just hours later
supposedly commits suicide in Black Bear National Park in West Virginia.
But is it suicide or is it murder? And what can this death have to do
with David Sloane?
Homicide Detective Tom Molia of the nearby Charles Town police
department finds clues that lead him to believe Branick did not kill
himself. Unfortunately, for Molia, President Robert Peak has put his
White House Chief of Staff, Parker Madsen, on the case. Madsen calls in
River Jones, Assistant U. S. Attorney to take over the case from local
police officials. Jones is told that what reflects poorly on Branick
will reflect poorly on the President and his administration and that
must not happen.
Jones forces locals off the case, but Detective Molia isn't convinced
it's just a routine suicide. If it were, the G-men wouldn't call it an
investigation. Molia, bulldog that he is, continues his own
investigation without the approval of his Chief of Police.
While all this is ongoing, David Sloane's life has become surreal. His
condo is turned upside down without anything being stolen. His elderly
friend, Melba is murdered in Sloane's apartment and Sloane is the number
one suspect even though he, too, was attacked physically. Sloane escapes
arrest and is determined to get back his life. Why are these things
happening to him? What is in the mysterious package that was delivered
to his office in San Francisco?
He needs to know more. About Branick. About others who are in as much
danger as he is. And about the president and his men. But in the face of
a secret that spans decades and governments, and puts billions of
dollars at risk there's one thing Sloane can't possibly envision: that
this runaway conspiracy is all about him—and only he can stop it.
Dugoni, in his first novel, creates a whole new kind of thriller. "The
Jury Master" hurtles through one harrowing twist after another. The
voice and style of this author are fresh and in many aspects, unique.
Characterizations are deftly drawn making each player alive to the
reader. I found the perfectly crafted plot realistic and fully
believable leaving no room for disbelief as Sloane fights for his life
and gets closer to an explosive truth about who he is, how little he
knows of his own past, and who is the master of his fate . . .
Robert Dugoni has practiced as a civil litigator in San Francisco and
Seattle for nineteen years. He has a degree in journalism from Stanford
University and worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Time before
attending the UCLA School of Law. In 1999 he left his full-time legal
practice to write, and authored the award winning expose, "The Cyanide
Canary." Dugoni lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Copyright 2006, Patricia Ann Jones
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Jones is a published writer and book reviewer for Tulsa
World newspaper.
To comment on this review you may email
pattij777@aol.com
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