OMG. I was raging and saddened for Joey Felton. Fucking animals…a familiar story that has shared more than one headline in our current events…a man beaten to death by the police…a scape goat. A trial where all the biases and failings of the justice system are exposed. A frightening look at out justice system…the good and the bad.
4 Stars
I won a signed paperback of Beijing Memorandum by J B Morris. I would like to thank IReadBookTours. Lauren and J B Morris for this wonderful addition to my book stack.
Moses swore he would never walk away from someone asking for his help…and he doesn’t. For a political thriller, this has it all. The characters…some I loved, some I loathed, and some I wanted to reach into the pages and take them out myself. The action is nonstop with intrigue and danger. Sometimes are enemies are our friends and make an unlikely but necessary ally. Five hundred plus pages of an in depth look into Moses’ world of fiction that kept be reading late into the night.
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
The good news is that public defender Summer Neuwirth just won her first case, which involved a brutal rape and kidnapping.
The bad news? Her client was guilty.
What’s more, he knows all about Summer’s past.
As Summer pursues her next case, this time to keep an innocent woman off death row, elements of that past–a mysterious case of childhood amnesia, her police officer father’s involvement with a serial killer, a terrifying attack she survived just months earlier–entwine with her present legal work, her missing mother, and her rocky relationship with a private investigator, all of which culminate in a thrilling trial… and terror.
I’ve had this on my TBR since 9.18.12. I do love a good thriller and I am curious about the terror. I hope I am on the edge of my seat with this one, because that’s the way I like it, uh huh, uh huh. 🙂
My thanks go out to Mike Papantonio and a friend, Jeff Weeks. Jeff hosts Conversations With Jeff on WSRE, the PBS station where Mr Wonderful works, so I am able to learn of what’s happening in the world a little earlier than others…sometimes. Sometimes I visit the set to meet an author or sometimes a little something comes my way without me doing anything, like Law and Addiction. Thanks again guys!
Mike Papantonion has done an excellent job in showing how greed and corruption can be carried to such an extreme that bodies are falling by the thousands and towns are dying because of it. Truly horrifying!
Let;s look at it through an attorney’s eye…though it is fiction, I feel Mike Papantonio shares a lot of himself in Law and Addiction.
I am not going to get on a pedestal and rant, but I do not think the media has done a good enough job of covering this epidemic that the United States is facing today. I had heard of it, but kinda shrugged it off, thinking….it would never affect me. Thank goodness it hasn’t, directly, but as I read Law and Addiction so many things were brought to light that I couldn’t just shrug it off any longer. I feel everyone would benefit from reading this and be aware…companies and the government are not always there to help you. It is up to YOU to stay educated and aware of the things going on around you.
Now…to the fiction…we have to have a character, a good guy that has no idea what he is getting into when he tries to make the culprits responsible for his brother’s overdose pay. I love how Jake showed no fear, no hesitation, believing all things are possible. He doesn’t know what he’s in for and that’s a good thing, because he might have stopped before he ever started if he knew what was up ahead.
Mike Papantonio does a good job of showing the process…the legalities…the paper mountains…the brick walls…and the determination and patience necessary to take on Goliath, the ‘American drug cartel’ and ride the Oxy Express (I-75). There is a side story that comes about and more criminals are waiting for their moment to rear their greedy, ugly heads and take advantage of those less fortunate.
Everything really amped up from Chapter 33 on. Blurry, tear filled eyes were happening and I was surprised at that…ya know, this is a legal thriller, not the romantic suspense that I devour. But, it is not dry and boring. It is not all bad and sad, even though Jake is put through hell and I didn’t know if he would make it or not. The characters grow as individuals and as a group, making a family, of sorts. It is not all gloom and doom, we do have some smiles and laughs, love and romance, along the way. All the things necessary for a well rounded life in the thriller world. Law and Addiction read like a true story…even the far fetched parts were plausible.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Law and Addiction by Mike Papantonio.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
One week before Jake Rutledge is scheduled to graduate from law school, he receives the devastating news of the death of his fraternal twin, Blake. What makes this death even more terrible for Jake is that his brother died of a drug overdose. Until hearing of his death, Jake had no idea his brother was even using drugs.
When Jake returns home to Oakley, West
Virginia, he takes a hard look at the circumstances of his brother’s
death. In the five years Jake has been away for his schooling, his
hometown has drastically changed. Because of the opioid epidemic, and
the blight it has brought, many now call Oakley Zombieland. Jake can see
how his town’s demise parallels his brother’s.
Undeterred, the
newly minted lawyer takes on the entrenched powers by filing two
lawsuits. Jake quickly learns what happens when you upset a hornet’s
nest. The young attorney might be wet behind the ears, but is sure there
is no lawyer that could help him more than Nick Deke Deketomis and his
law firm of Bergman/Deketomis. Deke is a legendary lawyer. When he was
Jake’s age he was making his name fighting Big Tobacco. Against all
odds, Jake gets Nick and his firm to sign on to his case before it’s too
late.
ABOUT MIKE PAPANTONIO
Mike Papantonio is a senior partner of Levin Papantonio, one of the largest plaintiffs’ law firms in America, that has handled thousands of cases throughout the nation involving pharmaceutical drug litigation, Florida tobacco litigation, litigation for asbestos-related health damage, securities fraud actions, and other mass tort cases. “Pap” has received dozens of multimillion dollar verdicts on behalf of victims of corporate corruption.
Papantonio
is one of the youngest attorneys to have been inducted into the Trial
Lawyer Hall of Fame. In 2012 Papantonio became President of the National
Trial Lawyers Association, one of the largest trial lawyer
organizations in America. For his trial work on behalf of consumers,
Papantonio has received some of the most prestigious awards reserved by
the Public Justice Foundation, The American Association for Justice, and
the National Trial Lawyers Association.
Papantonio is an author
of four motivational books for lawyers. He is also co-author of Air
America: The Playbook, a New York Times Political Best Seller.
Papantonio
is the host of the nationally syndicated radio show “Ring of Fire”
along with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Sam Seder. Papantonio has
conducted hundreds of recorded interviews with guests, including Dan
Rather, Helen Thomas, Howard Zinn, Arianna Huffington, Mary Chapin
Carpenter, Bernie Sanders, David Crosby, Merle Haggard, Morgan Spurlock,
John Edwards, Bill Moyers, Rickie Lee Jones, Alanis Morissette, Pete
Seeger, Jackson Browne, Chuck D from Public Enemy, Henry Rollins, Ted
Sorensen, and Elizabeth Kucinich. His role on “Ring of Fire” is featured
in the movie, “Jesus Camp,” which was nominated for the 2007 Academy
Award for Documentary Feature.
Papantonio is also a political commentator who frequently appears on MSNBC, Free Speech TV, RT America Network, and Fox News.
Papantonio is married and has one daughter. He is an avid scuba diver and often dives on the Emerald Coast.
I was lucky to get four books in the Rachel Knight series by Marcia Clark from NetGalley and Mulholland Books. I downloaded Guilt By Degrees on 6.29.14.
The preview for Guilt By Degrees by Marcia Clark made me sit up and take notice, wanting to read more.
I remember short pants…floods. Do you? Made me smile. Nice touch, Marcia.
I love that Rachel has to finish every book she begins…regardless…
The romance is slow burning and I think she takes as many cold showers as he does. LOL She hold her secrets close to her vest, sharing with no one, not even her BFFs.
Step by step, danger hovering. The writing for the Rachel Knight series keeps getting better and the suspense more intense.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Guilt by Degrees by Marcia Clark.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Someone has been
watching D.A. Rachel Knight–someone who’s Rachel’s equal in brains, but
with more malicious intentions. It began when a near-impossible case
fell into Rachel’s lap, the suspectless homicide of a homeless man. In
the face of courthouse backbiting and a gauzy web of clues, Rachel is
determined to deliver justice. She’s got back-up: tough-as-nails
Detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey stir things up, they’re
shocked to uncover a connection with the vicious murder of an LAPD cop a
year earlier. Something tells Rachel someone knows the truth, someone who’d kill to keep it secret.
Harrowing,
smart, and riotously entertaining, GUILT BY DEGREES is a thrilling ride
through the world of LA courts with the unforgettable Rachel Knight.
. The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.
~~~
I have been reading Stuart Woods for some time and to add Worst Fears Realized to my collection was a no brainer.
Stone said goodbye and hung up. His stomach was growing and he hated missing this lunch.
( page 56, in hardcover,1st edition, published in 1999)
Book Beginnings
The pain lay buried somewhere in the depths of Stone Barrington’s upper body; a cross between a slipped disc and a coronary, it seemed. It had begun after a phone conversation early in the previous winter. The call,from Arrington Carter, had ended everything. Now she was the wife of another man, living in his house, rearing his son. He would never see her again, except in her husband’s company, and he would never think of her again without feeling the pain.
GOODREADS BLURB:Someone is Brutally killing the women in Stone Barrington’s life — and he doesn’t know why. His date, his secretary, and his neighbor are all murdered within 24 hours of one another. When the D.A. comes sniffing at his door, Stone, the New York lawyer-turned-investigator, enlists the help of his best friend, Dino, the N.Y.P.D. lieutenant, to clear his good name. When Dino gets involved, the cast of characters, shady and otherwise, grows as Dino’s Mafioso-type father-in-law, his beautiful daughter Dolce, and even the doorman get into the act. The plot twists from the front table at Elaine’s to the dark alleys where Armani-clad mobsters dwell, and Stone can only pray that his worst fears won’t be realized as he tries to save the lives of the women he cares about.
The Friday 56 is hosted by 
so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
