The Pardon

An innocent man is executed, and a guilty man is set free. Grippando gets things off to a fast start.

Jack Swytek is estranged from his father, now the governor, who had been elected on a law-and-order platform, promising to expedite executions. Barely two hours before the electrocution of Fernandez, Jack is visited by a man in a ski mask who, insisting on lawyer-client confidentiality, shows him proof that Fernandez is innocent because he, himself, is the killer.

Jack heads for the governor’s mansion where he and his father face off about the impending execution. Insisting he cannot provide proof of the man’s innocence because of client confidentiality (personally, I would have broken it immediately, self-serving lawyer ethics be show more damned) Jack is unable to convince his father to call it off.

Shift to a few years later as Jack manages to get a killer’s confession thrown out and the jury releases Goss, a vicious killer. Then Goss is killed and the governor and Jack are being setup for his murder. Usually, in a case like this, the premise is undermined by illogical actions of the characters. Grippando has avoided that by making the rationale for why Jack and his father can’t communicate, quite plausible.

The best legal dramas have great courtroom scenes. Unfortunately, the courtroom scenes were but a small portion of the book. The plot is ingenious and tricky, although how the killer manages to be in some of those places had me buffaloed. And I knocked off a star for a ludicrous ending. I had hoped for something much more subtle and intelligent. show less

This is a high 2/12 or low 3 star book. It is a page turner. What kept me turning those pages was the hope that there would be answers to open threads in the story or that an amazing twist would emerge. Sadly neither occurred. I have to admit, that I entered the story with a bad taste in my mouth.

The opening forward of the book is several pages of autobiography about the author. Most of it is elf aggrandizing about his time as an attorney, how he read a Grisham novel and felt he could do as well as Grisham and voila! he became an author. Sadly, 50% of attorneys graduate at the bottom of their class and 50% of authors likewise. This is not a Grisham, but it is a copy cat wannabe.

The story opens with a man being defended by an attorney show more under 30 working on something like an Innocence Project. He is begging the governor for a stay. The governor denies it because of his bid for re-election on law and order issues. Oh, and he happens to be our noble young attorneys father and they have issues.

Several problems arose for me here. The first was that the attorney is described as under 30 meaning he is only a short time out of law school and already he has amassed a wonderful record. Justice moves like molasses, not lightning. In 2 1/2 years he would be lucky to have one case finished much less amass any kind of a record. Second, the governor is his father. Conflict much? There is no way in the world you can make that work. Finally, it is inferred that he turned down numerous lucrative offers to take this job yet as a young attorney, even if he is the governors son, every man and his dog appears to know the guy.

I also despise when everyone else working with the hero is a stereotype: the frumpy, fat guy with donut dust on his cheap suit; the unattractive women lawyers who are either librarian-ish or severe and hard and the token black, Hispanic, Jewish or lesbian/gay lawyer. Of course, our noble young hero is good looking, and wears stylishly expensive jeans and shirts with an expensive sports coat thrown over the top and a tie if he is going to court.

While the basic story was thrilling, there were also lots of holes that were never filled. If this book is an introduction to a series, some of these issues need to be addressed in book one to set the tone for future conflicts. The issues between son, father and step mother are never satisfactorily settled or explained. The death of the mother is implied to be both suicide and murder but never cleared up. I was also never really invested in his relationship. I felt more upset about the death of the dog than any peril the human characters faced.

There were several conflicting ideas and descriptions about the killer so that when it got to the end, I was astounded and wondering how they made a mental jump to this being a Cuban hit man who happened to be the brother of the innocent who was executed. Spoiler alert: he wasn't innocent either so the whole thing was for naught. Now at times, that premise works leaving the reader feeling empty or disappointed in mankind. In this case, it just didn't feel like it made a lot of sense.

All of that being said, the pacing is good and it does keep you turning pages - just trying to make pieces fit. When they don't and there is no satisfying resolution or feeling at the end, that is where you get the 2 1/2 star rating. show less

An author another friend of mine enjoyed; I chose this one because it was #1 in one of his series. Fast moving legal thriller with some psychopath grisliness thrown in as the villain kills his way towards destroying Jack Swyteck, Miami lawyer & son of the Florida governor. Pacing and plot twists were typical of this genre; the characterizations were okay but were not fleshed out, complex enough, for my taste - almost paint by numbers, esp the women characters.

Wow! There was a lot going on in this book. But it was pretty good and action packed. Once it got started, it never stopped. It was a good story, but I'm not yet entirely sold on the characters. They are very flawed, but I think I can learn to like them. We'll see what the next book holds.

A 5-year-old’s question.
A father’s answer…Silence.
Their relationship changed in that moment of silence.
A rift.
Will it always be irrevocable?

Years Later…
A son. A defense attorney. The Freedom Institute. Defender of constitutional rights.
A father. A street cop. A governor. Politics. Re-election campaign. Blackmailed.

Lives are interwoven in more ways than they know.
Innocent or Guilty?

Twists. Turns. Red Herrings.
The future is at stake.

Want a charged, taut thriller?
Read "The Pardon."

An excellent, well written legal thriller, Grippando's strength is well written characters and constant action, with an occasional twist thrown in to keep you on your toes. Tough to put in one type of genre box, as it's a nice mix of legal/courtroom procedure drama mixed with action thriller. It also shows its timeliness that I read it for the first time 16 years after it's original published date and outside of the few times they mention a "VCR" it's a pretty timeless story.

Very good first in series. Makes you want to earn more about where Swyteck goes from here. The main annoyance I had was that the Capital of Florida is Tallahassee and until the end of the book, the writing is as if the Governor's mansion is in Miami. There is a bit of Southern humor dispersed and by the beginning of part four you still have absolutely no idea who the bad guy really is. You know who he isn't but you can't figure out who it actually is. Looking forward to the next installment.