The defense

Cavanagh's years as a Belfast civil rights lawyer add a layer of reality to the courtroom sequences of this razzle-dazzle debut legal thriller. All the ingredients needed for a compulsive listen are in place. Hero Eddie Flynn, a top Manhattan defense attorney with a previous career as a master-class con man, is as likable as he is resourceful. The villain, Olek Volchek, is a ruthless Russian Mafia chieftain on trial for a murder that, thanks to an eyewitness, is literally indefensible. Cavanagh's wickedly clever premise has the despicable Volchek forcing Eddie to represent him by kidnapping and threatening to torture and kill the lawyer's 10-year-old daughter, Amy. British theater actor Sims employs a tone-perfect tough-but-educated American accent for the wily Flynn, who, in the true style of a man on the hustle, masks his desperation with a hardboiled confidence. Sims's Russian accent is just as effective, capturing not only the harshness of boss Volchek and his second-in-command, Arturas, but their differing attitudes, the former sounding flat and coldly unemotional when speaking of Amy's possibly grim fate, the latter exhibiting a chilling, sadistic eagerness to do the job himself. A Flatiron hardcover. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Lawyer Eddie Flynn is in a bind. His current case involves the Russian mob and to ensure that he uses his courtroom tricks to their benefit, they've kidnapped Flynn's daughter and strapped a bomb to him. The bomb is set to go off 48 hours from the start of the trial, and since he'll be in court for most of that time, it seems impossible to prevent the deaths of his daughter and hundreds of people in the New York courthouse. But this is Eddie Flynn, amateur magician and a master of legerdemain in front of a jury. This debut is in the vein of Grisham, Turow, and Margolin, and even though Cavanagh seems a bit facile in having his protagonist avoid one catastrophe after another, he has created a fascinating character and is skilled in describing the chess moves that go on during the trial. Narrator Adam Sims does a superb job of keeping the story flowing. The 48 hours given Flynn to present a defense in a seemingly open-and-shut case is stretched to ten and a half hours of suspense, action, terror, and surprises. VERDICT A strong optional purchase for all public libraries.-Joseph L. Carlson, -Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.