Amazon.com (ISBN 0312867239, Hardcover)

If the legal details of this exciting, highly literate first thriller ring unusually true, attribute it to the fact that author Michael Fredrickson is general counsel to the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, (the lawyers' version of the police's Internal Affairs Division). He says in a preface that the book tracks the events of an actual murder, and the "Cinderella affidavit" in question--a phony document designed to get a search warrant--comes almost word for word from that case. But all these details would make for dull reading if Fredrickson didn't present them with the wit and skill of a veteran novelist.

When a simple drug bust in the Chinatown section of Boston goes wrong and a cop is killed, attorney Matt Boer--appointed by the court to defend one of the Chinese dealers--uncovers the bogus affidavit and begins to look into a police cover-up. Meanwhile, the other cops involved in the drug bust start to come apart at the seams, slipping into alcoholic and even psychotic behavior to hide some other dark secrets. Boer, a corporate lawyer with little criminal experience, screws up his client's case, but he gets a second chance to redeem himself by helping to unravel all the other tangled connections in the case.

Fredrickson might have dropped one too many chunks of meaty legalese into his hearty stew, but that's a lot easier to savor than the thin broth of most first thrillers. --Dick Adler