The Tenth Justice (original 1997; edition 1998)

very goor. very entertaining. Giving up supreme court decisions.

I cannot fathom how this man has sold so many books.

In this one, we meet Ben Addison and his three best buds, and have to suffer through dialogue that doesn't cut mustard against Sunday morning banter in the frat house.

The characters are largely annoying, and I found myself not really caring one way or another what happened to any of them.

A book I only completed due to the fact that I'd gotten far enough in before I realized how ultimately stupid it was, and I'd finish it to have at least a record of how lame this author is. ( )

The plot was compelling, the characters not so much. The dialogue was at turns humorous and stilted. Nevertheless the story kept me engaged from beginning to end.

One strange thing for those of you who read the book. Anyone explain why Ben doesn't carry a cell phone? His repeated trips to the pay phone comes off anachronistic and doesn't ring true so to speak.

All in all a good read for this genre. ( )

This is the very first book that Brad Meltzer wrote and it shows. I am still very confused about what exactly happened and when. He just doesn't quite pull off the "I'm going to skew events so it looks like 'A' happened when actually 'B' happened" way of writing that he must have been going for. I say leave this book alone and read The Zero Game instead. (Of course, the only other book of Meltzer's I've read is the Zero Game so that's why it's getting billing like that)

First published as Book Review: The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer on Gardening Literature.

The Tenth Justice is my first legal thriller, and I must confess that it was legally thrilling. Ok, bad joke, but I really did enjoy reading this book! The dialogue was completely realistic and humorous (if a bit mature) and the plot was uber mysterious. I stayed up late reading it! The twists and turns had me suspecting every one of the characters at some point. The characters themselves were so well developed it made reading a special treat. I didn’t once think that Ben’s, Nathan’s, or any other character’s reactions were fake, or questioned whether they would act a particular way. Even though it’s a legal thriller, there wasn’t a lot of confusing references to laws, and the cases were usually explained easily enough to understand. This coming from a girl who regularly confuses the democratic and republican parties, mind.

My favorite character is Ober. He is the clown of the four close friends/roommates but he has a sensitive side. His quotes are the funniest, like when he was discussing the Batman Theory, which is basically his opinion that people’s lives can be completely changed by one traumatic event. Think Catwoman, Joker, and other comic book characters. The lessons I learned from this book are 1) If you take an oath not to talk about something, don’t talk about it! 2) Treat your friends with respect, you never know what favors you might need to call in. The negatives of this book are the language, sex and sex-related humor.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars, and I can think of at least one person to recommend this book to. ( )