I like a good trashy legal thriller as much as anyone, but this was disappointing. A blurb on the back cover claimed "The suspense here is excruciating" but they must have been reading another book. ( )

An excellent book by an author whom I previously ignored. MY LOSS. Martini writes in a manner that is incredibally easy to understand and characters easy to follow. The hitchcock ending was great; sadly, I was in a hurry to get over the suspense and looked at the ending too soon. Don't do that; it has a great ending and truly unexpected. Some authors are easy to figure out when they do this method, but Martini surprised me totally with the twist. ( )

One step above John Grisham. Not great, but worth the read. ( )

Lawyer Paul Madriani is defending geneticist Dr David Crone in the murder of fellow researcher Kalista Jordan. Kalista was brutally killed with a plastic binding and dismembered and all the evidence points back to Dr. Cone. I found the book to be unbelievable at many points and simply a way to get to build up to the end twist. ( )

I have usually enjoyed the Paul Madriani character and the cases he gets involved in. But somehow this particular story kind of mills around without much energy and I had some trouble staying interested.

No one ever represented anyone charged with murder that was clearly more guilty, so you know he is innocent. After that you wait for the onion to get peeled down to the answer. There is not enough courtroom action and there was a bit more about genetics than I really wanted to know.

The title clearly does not refer to the usual '12 good men and true', as there is hardly any mention of them - and in any case, the trial does not run to conclusion. I think the reference is to the interplay between the two lawyers as they sort through all the red herrings.

This isn't a bad book. Just not up to his usual standard. A wet afternoon read. ( )