Review by Booklist Review
Miami defense attorney Jack Swyteck has returned to his roots, at least metaphorically: he's leasing office space at the financially struggling Freedom Institute (a fictionalized version of the real-life Innocence Project), an organization he helped get off the ground years earlier, and doing a little pro-bono work for the institute on the side. A woman approaches him with an odd story: her daughter, who disappeared three years ago, has been telephoning her. She never hears her daughter's voice, but she knows it's her. And she knows that the man who's about to be executed for her daughter's murder is innocent. Can Jack find the missing girl before the man is put to death? As it turns out, the case is a lot more complicated than he expected, and the truth is nearly impossible to find. The latest Swyteck legal thriller is tightly plotted and efficiently written: not a lot of wasted time or words here. A solid series entry.--Pitt, David Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Grippando addresses the challenges of adopting psychologically damaged children in his uneven 12th legal thriller featuring Florida attorney Jack Swyteck (after 2014's Black Horizon). Jack has honored a promise to the widow of his mentor, Neil Goderich, by moving his office to the building housing the legal clinic that Neil founded. When distraught mother Debra Burgette shows up looking for Neil, she says she needs help preventing the execution of Dylan Reeves, the man convicted of murdering her troubled adopted daughter, Sashi, when the girl was 17. Every year since Sashi disappeared three years earlier, Debra has received a silent phone call on Sashi's birthday that she's sure from Sashi. The compelling evidence against Reeves, who was defended by Neil, includes a videotaped confession and his DNA on Sashi's panties, which were retrieved days after her she went missing. Jack must also deal with formidable legal barriers to reopening the case. This promising setup unfortunately devolves into a run-of-the-mill race to save a man from execution. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
