The Tenth Justice

I'm not at all sure how I missed this when it first came out but what a treat to find it now. This is a fabulous story. Ben Addison and Lisa Nathan are two of the very few chosen to clerk for the Supreme Court. They are the crème de la crème. But, one small mistake takes them into a book full of trust and mistrust. This story has characters who are so real, I swear I would recognize them on the street. And this mystery plot is so good that the pages turn themselves and there isn't even one single murder. Meltzer's next book is already out and I may not be able to wait for the paperback. This guy is way young so I'm hoping we are looking at years and years of great reads.

I really did enjoy this, but it was pretty clearly one of Meltzer's earlier works. I've read some of his more recent works and found them impossible to put down--this one started out that way, and ended that way, but there was a good chunk in the middle where I was sort of wandering along and enjoying it, but not finding it to be so compulsively readable as I might have liked. As always, though, his characters were great, and the plot was full of twists and turns. I think I am glad that it wasn't the first of his works which I wandered into, but I'd certainly recommend it to readers who enjoy legal thrillers or works of suspense.

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 show more 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. show less

I got more than I expected out of this book (and I never expect much from these types of books). It was a page turner for me. I definitely did not expect how funny it would be. If you're not into comedic dialog, you won't like this book. The book could probably be shortened a hundred pages or so if you took out all the interactions between the roommates. Unfortunately the ending was very bittersweet.

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.

Pedantic. Read the whole thing out of curiosity (it's not exactly Joyce, so a quick read), was frustrated with the characters, who acted like teenagers with salaries. The intrigue would have been more intriguing if it was written a little less obviously. I almost put it down because I was sure I knew what was going to happen about a quarter of the way through.

All in all, I liked Meltzer's Book of Lies much better (it was why I grabbed this at a book sale).