Martini, Steve

Shadow of Power: A Paul Madriani Novel (Paul Madriani Novels)

The Supreme Court is one of our most sacred—and secretive—public institutions. But sometimes secrets can lead to cover-ups with very deadly consequences.

Terry Scarborough is a legal scholar and provocateur who craves headline-making celebrity, but with his latest book he may have gone too far. In it he resurrects forgotten language in the U.S. Constitution—and hints at a missing letter of Thomas Jefferson's—that threatens to divide the nation.

Then, during a publicity tour, Scarborough is brutally murdered in a San Diego hotel room, and a young man with dark connections is charged. What looks like an open-and-shut case to most people doesn't to defense attorney Paul Madriani. He believes that there is much more to the case and that the defendant is a pawn caught in the middle, being scapegoated by circumstance.

As the trial spirals toward its conclusion, Madriani and his partner, Harry Hinds, race to find the missing Jefferson letter—and the secrets it holds about slavery and scandal at the time of our nation's founding and the very reason Scarborough was killed. Madriani's chase takes him from the tension-filled courtroom in California to the trail of a high court justice now suddenly in hiding and lays bare the soaring political stakes for a seat on the highest court, in a country divided, and under the shadow of power.

Compelling Evidence (A Paul Madriani Novel)

In the gripping tradition of Presumed Innocent, Compelling Evidence is a courtroom drama of epic proportions. Mesmerizing in its pace, captivating in its action, this story will hold the listener right up to its final verdict and shocking conclusion. Defense attorney Paul Madriani was on the rise with the firm of Potter and Skarpellos until a short-lived affair with Potter's wife cost him his job. Now, Potter's wife is accused of murdering her husband, and Paul is forced to uncover secrets that may end his career - and his life.

Undue Influence (A Paul Madriani Novel)

THE MURDER WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING...

Paul Madriani, the brilliant defense attorney from Compelling Evidence and Prime Witness, is back in a complex web of murder and deceit -- this time within his own family. His wife Nikki has just died of cancer. On her deathbed, Nikki made Paul promise to look after her younger sister, Laurel Vega, who is mired in a bitter child-custody battle with her ex-husband, a powerful state senator.

When Jack Vega's new wife is found slain execution-style, Laurel becomes the prime suspect. Paul -- remembering his promise to his wife -- has no choice but to take Laurel's case. But as he tries to mount a defense and probes deeper into the lives of those involved, he discovers a trail of betrayal and duplicity that hides the truth at every turn.

A gripping drama that spirals toward its shattering conclusion, Undue Influence is a brilliant work from the author hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "the newest superstar among fictionalizing attorneys."

Prime Witness (A Paul Madriani Novel)

The Judge (A Paul Madriani Novel)

Judge Armanda "the Coconut" Acosta is arrested on charges of soliciting a prostitute in a sting operation for "johns," and few -- including attorney Paul Madriani, who has a long history of enmity with the judge -- are sympathetic. When the young female decoy who snared the judge is found brutally murdered, Acosta is the prime suspect.

Abandoned by his friends, Acosta asks Paul to save his career from impending doom. Paul is reluctant, but when Acosta's original defense lawyer is forced off the case by a zealous district attorney looking for revenge, Paul steps forward to defend the judge. With his client now charged with murder, Paul faces the most daunting, disturbing, and complex case of his career.

Packed with nonstop drama and a cast of richly drawn characters that have come to be Steve Martini's trademark, The Judge delivers a decisive thumbs-up verdict.

Critical Mass

When a handsome stranger walks into Joss Cole's one-woman law office on a sleepy island in Puget Sound and slaps down a hefty retainer to incorporate a fledgling electronics business, the burned-out ex-public defender has a hunch things aren't exactly as they seem. And when Dean Belden, this strange new client, comes back a few days later with a federal grand jury subpoena he swears he can't explain, she still doesn't tie it into the bizarre illness suffered by her other major clients, a group of commercial fishermen. Then Belden skips out on the feds and dies before her eyes in the fiery explosion of his float plane. Or does he? Within hours there are two attempts on Joss's life--clearly someone thinks she knows more than she's telling. Later, a nuclear fission expert shows up on the island tracking two missing tactical nuclear devices stolen from a Siberian storage facility, and the Geiger counter starts ticking. When Joss's fishermen start dying of what is clearly radioactive poisoning, the outlines of Belden's shadowy past get filled out in a tense thriller as topical as today's headlines. Steve Martini ties it all together with a fast-paced, well-plotted story of homegrown militia groups set up by America's enemies. He tosses in a hint of romance--just enough to show off Joss's vulnerable side without slowing down the action. Martini fans will swallow this one whole, while those who haven't discovered him yet can catch up with his several other thrillers on the paperback backlist, including Compelling Evidence, Prime Witness, and The Judge. --Jane Adams

The United States is fat and happy -- and on the eve of the deadliest act of mass terrorism in history. From the embers of Oklahoma City comes the specter of Critical Mass.

Jocelyn Cole, a burned-out public defender from L.A., has opted for a quieter life in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. Jocelyn has no significant clients other than a group of commercial fisherman suffering from a strange and serious illness; a condition doctors cannot diagnose, which Jocelyn believes has an industrial cause. Then into her office comes Dean Belden, a well-heeled client in search of a lawyer to help him set up a business in the islands. Within days Belden is subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. Before he can testify, and before Jocelyn can discover what happened in the secrecy of the grand jury room, Belden dies in the fiery explosion on his floatplane on Seattle's Lake Union.

Gideon Van Ry is a nuclear fission expert and a scholar in residence at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California. One of his duties is to update the Center's database, an extensive catalogue of fissionable materials and weapons of mass destruction. Gideon is troubled by the apparent failure in accounting for two small tactical nuclear devices missing from a storage facility in the former Soviet Union. The weapons were last seen in packing crates awaiting shipment to an American company, Belden Electronics. Gideon has been unable to locate this firm, and now he is left with only one possible lead, the lawyer who incorporated the company -- Jocelyn Cole.

Fraught with tension and suspense, Critical Mass is Steve Martini at his electrifying best.

The Simeon Chamber

The Attorney (A Paul Madriani Novel)

Sleuthing California defense counsel Paul Madriani lands one of his twistiest cases to date. His client, sport fisherman Jonah Hale, won $87 million in a lottery but lost his heart. Jonah's got custody of his eight-year-old grandkid Mandy, because his daughter Jessica is a cokehead party animal. Sprung from jail, Jessica demands cash. Jonah says no. So Jessica and Mandy disappear, with help from marital-rape-victim-turned-fanatical-activist Zolanda Suade. Suade's group, Vanishing Victims, specializes in thwarting courts and bashing rich males.

Madriani tries to reason with Suade, who almost pulls a gun on him, then taunts him with a press release: Suade's going public with Jessica's charge that Jonah molested Mandy. Madriani's girlfriend works in Child Protective Services, so he gets a tidbit or two of inside info--the charge is phony, but because CPS can't comment on cases, the smear will suffice to ignite a media firestorm. When Suade turns up dead, media interest does not subside. In court, circumstantial evidence forms a tightening noose around Jonah's neck, and Madriani starts wondering whether Jonah did kill Suade. Also, underworld types who may know Jessica and/or a Mexican drug lord start stalking Madriani, and more corpses pop up.

Martini, who covered the Manson trial, then became a lawyer and a bestselling novelist, is great at realistic, ingenious courtroom suspense, media-circus scenes, and dramatizing the impact of office politics on legal proceedings. His characters and prose are workmanlike but sturdy. Always grouped with lawyers-turned-writers Scott Turow and John Grisham, Martini thinks Turow's a better writer (in terms of character and dialogue), and Grisham's a natural-born storyteller who towers over all, but that he, Martini, is a better storyteller than Turow and a better writer than Grisham. The Attorney is evidence that he may be right. --Tim Appelo

Paul Madriani is back!

Having moved to San Diego to be closer to the woman in his life, Madriani takes on the case of Jonah Hale, an elderly man in dire straits. Because of the longtime drug addiction of their only child, Jessica, Jonah and his wife have been raising their eight-year-old granddaughter, Amanda. After Jonah wins a multi-million dollar state lottery, Jessica revives her interest in mothering. When Jonah won't deal-maternal rights for a megabucks payoff-Jessica pulls out all the stops.

Enter Zolonda Suade, a flamboyant feminist activist with a talent for making children and their "victimized" mothers disappear. When the next move turns deadly, Madriani finds himself drawn into a web of deceit and high-stakes action, in and out of the courtroom.

Rich with characters drawn from today's headlines, driven by motives both obvious and subtle, The Attorney marks the much-anticipated return of Paul Madriani.

The Arraignment (A Paul Madriani Novel)

When Paul Madriani's old friend, flamboyant criminal-defense lawyer Nick Rush, is gunned down on the streets of San Diego along with a client, Madriani sets out to find the killer. He follows the trail through shady real-estate dealings, cross-border smuggling, political corruption, and a nasty fight between Rush's ex and his young trophy wife over a hefty life-insurance policy. Eventually the case leads Madriani to the Yucatan Peninsula near Cancún, where the last third of the book takes place--a dandy locale for skullduggery, even if it does make you suspect that the author thought up the plot while vacationing there.

The Arraignment is marred by some sloppy, foggy-headed writing ("The neighborhood exudes the kind of aura picked up by a sixth sense that lingers and lifts the hair on the back of my neck"), and the plot, after its initial bang, sags for a while before it gets moving again. However, the sheer vigor of Martini's prose, his densely inventive plotting, and his sharply drawn characters carry you happily, tensely along. The book's action scenes--including a hand-to-hand fight in a shabby apartment and an unforgettable poolside shooting at a Cancún resort--are told in fresh, vivid prose that unfolds with hypnotic clarity. And the denouement is great fun, although the complex plot takes a lot of explaining at the end. Martini's not perfect, but he's still one of the best legal/adventure thriller writers going. --Nicholas H. Allison

Clint Adams thought he'd seen it all. Then, he found a man who'd been tortured to death and tied ramrod-straight to a runaway horse. Now, the dead man's enemies plan a similar send-off for the Gunsmith.

Double Tap (A Paul Madriani Novel)

Paul Madriani's defense of a soldier on trial for murder-and the explosive government secrets it could reveal-propel Steve Martini's latest thriller.

The Arraignment, Steve Martini's most recent bestseller featuring defense attorney Paul Madriani, has proved his most popular yet. Now Madriani is faced with daunting ballistics evidence: a so-called "double tap"-two bullet wounds tightly grouped in the victim's head, shots that could have been made only by a crack marksman. Paul's client, Emiliano Ruiz, is an enigma-a career soldier who refuses to discuss his past though it is clear that he is a battle-tested pro. Ruiz is accused of killing a beautiful businesswoman and guru of a high-tech software empire catering to the military. A key to the case: the murder weapon is one used solely in special operations, where the "double tap" has become the signature of the most skilled assassins.

Ruiz is sitting on secrets-there's a seven-year gap on his military résumé, for which Madriani can find no details. And, more troubling, he discovers that the victim and her company were involved in a controversial government computer program designed to combat terrorists. Madriani finds himself in a deadly legal quagmire-with a client who is unwilling to cooperate and prosecutors who stonewall his every question about the victim's shadowy business and his client's past. Justice, and the unvarnished truth, has never been so elusive-or so dangerous.