Silent Witness

This story centers around the friendship of three high school students, Tony Lord, Sam Robb, and Sue Cash, living in the small town of Lake City, Ohio. Tony and Sam are both athletic and highly competitive with each other. The two seem to share Sue until Tony starts dating Alison Taylor, a popular girl whose family descends from the town's founders. The four teens become close. In the first half of the book, the author spends a lot of time, maybe too much, focused on the angst of teenage relationships, moral questions about sex before marriage, and the love/hate relationship between Tony and Sam. They are supposed to be best friends, yet don't seem to really like each other. Then, on Prom night, the plot explodes into action when Tony show more finds Allison raped and strangled in Taylor Park and becomes the prime suspect for her murder. Even though the police never bring charges against Tony, he remains stigmatized by the event and leaves town after graduation.

Fast forward twenty-eight years, Sam, now married to Sue and serving as VP at Lake City High School, finds himself in the same situation as his childhood friend, Tony, when one of his students is found dead in Taylor Park, and the police arrest him for her murder. Sue reaches out to Tony, now a lawyer, to help. The last third of the book is devoted to the trial, the evolving relationships among Tony, Sam, and Sue, and the subsequent consequences. There's quite a bit of sexual content in the trial that I found to be somewhat excessive. Even though some parts of the book are hard to get through, the surprise ending made it worth the effort. show less

I had never read a Richard North Patterson novel before...but am so glad that this one caught my eye. His work is outstanding. So much so that I believe he will join the ranks of my favorite mystery writers. I really enjoyed the book. The story was well told making it a "page turner" I had worked out who had probably committed the crime before the end but still was surprised by some of the evidence. Anyone that likes a good mystery along with some court room drama will really like this book.

I haven't read a lot of legal thrillers - Scott Turow's first and a couple of John Grishams when trapped on an airplane. But Cousin Frank brought be a bag of paperbacks to help me get through post-surgical recovery. I'd never heard of Richard North Patterson (though my wife told me he was very popular). Having just started Patterson's "The Final Judgement), Patterson seems to have a standard set-up: an accomplished attorney has to return to his/her hometown, having previously vowed never to return. But he/she has a responsibility to prove a friend/relative innocent of murder. I didn't know that when reading "Silent Witness," so I just went along with the premise. In this case, it's super-attorney Tony Lord, who returns to his Ohio show more hometown to defend his high school best friend, Sam Robb - vice principal of his high school - against charges of murdering a student with whom he'd been having a sexual relationship. As a high school student, Tony had been accused of murdering his girlfriend, Alison Taylor, after having sex with her following the big football game which Tony, the quarterback, and Sam, the receiver won for their school. Tony is conflicted by his high school experience, his relationship with Sam, his relationship with Sam's wife, Sue, and his doubts about Sam's innocence. He is, however, a dedicated and determined criminal defense attorney, who will use any means at his disposal, including casting reasonable doubt by pointing a finger at another high school friend who knew the dead girl, Marcie Calder.

While all of the lawyering keeps a level of suspense about Marcie's murder, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes - or even Tony Lord - to figure out who murdered Marcie Calder and who murdered Alison Taylor. Patterson betrays the mystery through his characters' dialog - there's just too much yammering between and among the principal characters about Alison's murder, the night she died, the police investigation of Tony, the police investigation of Sam, how sorry everyone is about the murders and the accusations. Tony and Sam really are not very interesting characters, and Sue is just connective tissue. The most interesting characters are Stella Marz, a prosecutor with steel in her spine and a genuine outrage about crimes against women, and Saul Ravin, the aging attorney who had represented Tony in the matter of Allison Taylor and helped Tony in his defense of Sam Robb.

What did I like? The high school friendship/competition between Tony and Sam was spot on in the details and genuine in its emotion. The two are both stellar athletes, but things just seem to come easier to Tony, which Sam resents. They are both candidates for the school's athlete of the year, which Sam wins but can't convince himself he was more deserving than Tony. He has a terrific girlfriend, but has convinced himself that Tony's is a better catch. When Tony comes back to defend Sam, he's conflicted between gratitude (though Sue asked Tony to defend Sam) and resentment against again falling into the shadow of the better athlete, who's now a legal legend.

My wife was an attorney in another life, and I've sat on juries. As on TV and int he movies, Tony and Stella are the kind of lawyers we'd all like to have in a pinch - but which we rarely see in real life. The courtroom scenes are well done, with incisive questioning and anticipation of the opposition's questions; and dramatic, but not overly dramatic, opening and closing statements. Of course, we have the destruction of witness testimony and ingenious interpretations of evidence. The result of the trial is not surprising, but the denoument was. In the end the book really is about ethics - of police and prosecutors, educators, local politicians, victims' family members, and legal advocates. show less

Great book, I loved it! Keep me guessing to the end. Did have some language and graphic details…

This similar to a Law and Order: SVU episode. But I like it because you get flashbacks from Tony Lord's past that really play out into the plot. Very good suspence and a suprising ending. Nice read

high school murder — boy moves away, Harvard Lawyer back to defend friend

Almost thirty years have passed since Tony Lord left Lake City. Thirty long years dedicated to putting the past the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Alison Taylor, and his own acquittal of the crime behind him. Married, a father, and a successful defense lawyer in San Francisco, Tony Lord has run as far from Lake City as he can.

New characters and really good legal mystery.