Mark Gimenez: The Absence of Guilt (A. Scott Fenney Book 3)

Very contemporary terrorist/legal thriller
The FBI uncovers an ISIS plot to detonate a bomb that would kill thousands of spectators in the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas during the Super Bowl.  They arrest the apparent terrorists and the President goes on television and proclaims that the terrorists have been beaten.

Newly appointed US District Judge A. Scott Fenney is faced with a commitment hearing for the accused terrorists. Things are not straightforward as the FBI doesn't have any viable evidence of the plot, especially against a radical Muslim cleric Omar al Mustafa reputed to be their leader. Judge Fenney is asked to detain Mustafa and the followers arrested with him until after the Super Bowl which is three weeks away. If there is insufficient evidence Scott must set someone free who is probably the most dangerous man in Dallas.

Many of you who have read the previous books in the series will remember Scott as a young, ambitious and rich lawyer with a trophy wife who successfully defends a black drug addict prostitute on a murder charge. He loses his career, his wife and his riches and when the prostitute overdoses he adopts the prostitute's daughter Pajamae and brings her to live with his daughter Boo. Pajamae and Boo become close friends. They are similar in age, go to the same school and both dearly love A. Scott Fenney. The terrorist affair will affect both of them for the rest of their lives.

Scott is also scheduled to judge on the legal validity of Presidential executive orders that affect millions of illegal Mexican immigrants. This judgement is brought much closer to home when Scott becomes emotionally involved with a beautiful FBI agent with Mexican parents who is charged with protecting him during the terrorist case.

This is an action-packed legal thriller which will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very last moment. Mark Gimenez has taken on two very difficult and controversial topics - human rights in the struggle against terrorism and the legal status of millions of Mexican immigrants in the US. In doing so he highlights the different perception of the issues from a public and legal perspective.

Once again Gimenez has written an intelligent, sensitive and cleverly plotted action-packed legal thriller with plenty of twists and turns. A. Scott Fenney is one of Mark Gimenez' best characters - a man with a conscience which is not destined to bring him the greatest happiness.

Mark Gimenez: The Case against William

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The case against American Football
Most of this book is about the the popular cult of American Football and the immense impact on male youths who excel in the sport. As an Aussie I am not familiar with American Football, just as most Americans are not familiar with Cricket, so a lot of this book went over my head and hindered my understanding and enjoyment of this book.

At an early age it is clear that William Tucker has the athletic skills to excel on the football field. His father, Frank, then a successful defence lawyer, is persuaded by an eminent football coach to move his son from a top academic private school to a tough integrated public school to allow him to fully develop his footballing skills and have a chance of a college football scholarship and then at earning megabucks if he is selected to play for one of the top AFL teams.

While this sounds wonderful, William changes from a normal teenager into an over-muscled selfish prima donna who expects everything in the world, especially from the myriad of female football groupies who will do anything to please him. William is on the cusp of being selected for a star AFL career when, without warning, he is arrested for the rape and murder of a cheerleader two years earlier. The evidence is damning with a DNA match to blood on the body.

Frank's life meanwhile has gone downhill badly, impacted by his marriage breakdown and a case where his client had lied big time. He has become an alcoholic and has lost his licence to practice law. William is totally overconfident until he realises that he is only one step away from a death sentence, has no money and no one to help him. Will he let his father help him to avoid the death penalty?

What follows is a struggle for Frank to recover enough to help save his son's life, if his son will allow him to do so. The case is also an opportunity for a politically ambitious District Attorney to pay back a grudge he has had for years because Frank has usurped many of his prosecutions. Frank is supported by a fascinating, almost Camel Club, team of alcoholic friends, an ex-cop, and ex-football coach, and and ex-conman, supported by a court appointed female public defender who used to be a stripper.

Frank's battle to save William is an intense emotional challenge of a basically very good but sensitive man who has gone off the rails to save his son who has also gone off the rails.

Mark Gimenez is one of my favourite authors of legal thrillers, especially as he nearly always takes a shot at some aspects of life in the US - this time the cult of American football and elected judicial and legal officials. While I enjoyed some of the book it was not one of his best and my lack of knowledge of the American football system prevented me from really appreciating this book.

Mark Gimenez: The Abduction

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As good as it gets
I thought it would be hard for Mark Gimenez to match his debut novel "Color of Law" but IMHO he has done that with his second novel "The Abduction". I expected that this would follow the pattern of Gimenez's other books which are mainly legal thrillers, but this is a no holds barred complex thriller which puts him at the top of my favourite author list.

Gracie Brice is an active, highly intelligent and mature ten year old daughter of an IT genius, John Brice, who is about to float his company and become an instant billionaire. Her mother, Elizabeth, is a top tough defense lawyer who will stop at nothing to win her cases but is haunted by nightmares of evil that prevent her fully connecting with her husband and family.

Gracie is tops at soccer and has just won the match for her school, watched occasionally by her father who spends most of his time on his cell phone managing the float. When he goes to collect Gracie after the match the Coach tells him she has been collected by her uncle to take her to hospital because her grandmother has had a stroke. But Gracie doesn't have an Uncle and her grandmother lives in New York, not Texas!!

Colonel Ben Brice is a Vietnam hero who conducted bloody cross-border operations in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam and was a POW. He is now a drunk living in isolation suffering from post traumatic stress from his experiences. Despite this Gracie visits her Grandfather and they have a very close and loving relationship. As soon as Ben hears that Gracie is missing he springs into action and revisits the family he has not seen for years.

Most cases of child abduction normally involve a sex offender and the chances of survival are slim. In this case because the family are mega-rich the police and the FBI believe that ransom may be involved. But then Ben sees something that turns his blood cold and sets him off on the trail of the kidnappers.

This is a thriller that has everything with an adventurous fast moving plot involving complex and troubled characters, kidnapping, the Police and FBI searching for child molesters, and conspiracies going back to the days of the Vietnam war. While some may think the final plot line is a little far fetched Gimenez has used this author's licence to to write an unforgettable, page-turning, adrenaline-packed, edge of your seat thriller that you won't want to put down.

Mark Gimenez: Color of Law

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Top class emotional and ethical legal thriller
This is the best legal thriller I have read this year. It is an emotional story of legal, ethical and personal dilemmas faced by a young and successful lawyer, written by someone who has been a partner in a major law firm and has run his own small business who gives an edge of real authenticity to the story.

A. Scott Fenney's Mother always said that he had a gift but he didn't really understand what it was. Before bed  she would read a chapter of To Kill a Mocking Bird  and say `Scotty, be like Atticus. Be a lawyer. Do good.'. Scott  was always a great achiever, topping class at law school with an fantastic record of success on the football field. He was recruited by a top legal firm in Dallas and soon became their youngest and most successful performer. He believed that his gift had made him rich, and had given him a beautiful wife and daughter, a million dollar house, a Ferrari and designer clothes.

When he joined the the firm his boss told him "Scotty, the color of law isn't black-and-white, it's green! The rule of law is money - money rules! Money makes the law and the law protects the money! And lawyers protect the people with money!" In following this creed Scott no longer recognized the difference between making a deal and compromising his integrity. It was also very clear that the color of his law practice was also white, not black or latino.

One day this was tested when a Federal Judge appointed him to defend a black hooker, Shawanda Jones, a heroin addict accused of killing the wayward son of a Federal Senator. As this was pro-bono work Scott's first reaction is to hire a cheaper defense lawyer so that he could keep up the billable hours but Shawanda was adamant during pre-trial that he should be her lawyer.  She also asked him to make sure that her 9 year old daughter Pajamae living alone in a dangerous part of Dallas was kept safe during the trial. By taking the case and looking after Pajamae the color of Scott's law had changed from green to black.

From then on Scott is faced with a dilemma when pressure is placed on him by powerful people to drop the case, pressure that could kill his successful career. Scott soon finds out that the the pressure isn't a game and he is forced to understand that life should really be about truth and justice, not money or power or color, and that only his real gift can save his defendant's life.

Gimenez is a skilful author who gears up the tension, not only with the pressures on Scott's professional and personal life but also in how he can defend someone who looks guilty but continues to plead her innocence. It was a skilfully crafted emotional roller coaster which continued to the last page.

By chance I read the sequel "The Accused" first (also a great legal thriller) and I took a long time to get around to reading this book because the sequel told me a lot about what happened earlier. If you have not read any books by Mark Gimenez (now one of my favourite authors) I strongly recommend that you read this book first - you will not be disappointed.

Mark Gimenez: Con Law (John Bookman 1)

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Don't Judge a Book by its Covers
John Bookman is over 6 feet tall, with dark long hair and an olive complexion suggesting a Comanche heritage, wears jeans, boots and Tommy Bahama T-shirts and rides a second-hand restored Harley Davidson motor bike. He is skilled in martial arts and can take on several tough guys and win. Sounds a great profile for a kick-ass fictional hero, doesn't it?

But John Bookman (Book) is not your normal ex-military or law enforcement hero. He is a dedicated and brilliant tenured Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Texas School of Law and is often mentioned as a future Supreme Court nominee. He is a well known media personality who features regularly on network talk shows, often making prominent politicians look like idiots.

So why is Book such a fascinating and action-orientated new fictional hero? As well as trying to give his students an understanding of law in the real world through the eyes of the Constitution, he is also famous for his extra-curricula interest making sure justice is done by personally taking on lost causes - and winning.

As a tenured Professor, Book is helped by a law student as his paid intern to help him with his research, deal with his extensive correspondence from people wanting help and pick out letters that might interest Book. His interns' experience helping him with these cases can be traumatic - his last one quit saying "I didn't go to Law School to be shot at".

Book gets a letter from one of his previous interns, Nathan Jones in Marfa, who is very worried that gas/oil well fracking in West Texas may be contaminating the drinking water aquifer. Book has a very personal unpaid debt to Jones for his help in the past and within minutes is on his Harley headed for Marfa with his new (and very scared) intern, Nadine, riding pillion.

While there is a lot of character building in this first book of the series, there is still plenty of page-turning action as Book, with increasing help from Nadine, investigates the content of the letter in a small but surprisingly cosmopolitan Texas town. In the process they are attacked, shot at, run off the road and more.

I have read and enjoyed many of Mark Gimenez' books and he is high on my list of favourite authors. This was a great start to an exciting and unusual new series. I look forward to more of Book's search for justice ("Real Law" and "Book's Law" sound good to me).

NOTE: The link to Amazon goes to the Australian version as the book won't be released in the US until 4 July.

Mark Giminez: The Common Lawyer

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Another Great Gimenez
I am a fan of Mark Gimenez because he writes something different and meaningful every time. The only things that stay the same are his loving portrayals of Texas, warts and all, and in this book his love of Austen, especially the cosmopolitan SoCo district, shines through brightly.

Andy Prescott is an under-achieving C grade lawyer who puts his lifestyle ahead of a high powered career. He is an adrenalin junkie with a taste for the thrills of high speed mountain biking. His law business is in a shoebox office above a tattoo parlour in SoCo and he barely survives by helping people to skip out on speeding tickets.

The theme of this book is really "Money makes good men do bad things." Out of the blue, Andy is approached by a local billionaire, Russell Reeves, who wants his help to get the SoCo locals to support his redevelopment of run-down buildings into much needed low rent homes. Andy gets caught up in the thrill of earning more money than he has ever had in his life by the time Russell tells him the real reason - he wants Andy to go to any length to find people who might help save his son who is dying of a rare form of cancer.

As things unfold, Andy finds himself caught in a legal and ethical dilemma - should he help a loving father who is prepared to do anything to help his son survive, and has the money to make this happen. When discussing his dilemma with his father (who is dying of Cirrhosis of the liver) his father tells him "Life isn't fair. Sometimes that works for you and against someone else and against you. But life is always unfair to someone."

The gripping part of this book is how Andy faces up to this dilemma, and decide what he can do to make things right. This is a thoughtful, exciting and well written  book and well worth reading.

Mark Gimenez: The Perk

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Outstanding legal thriller - highly recommended
This is no ordinary legal thriller fiction - it is extraordinary legal, personal and emotional fiction. At times the family aspects tugged at the heart strings so much I "teared up". Not many books have that effect on me.

Beck Hardin fled his home in Texas after the death of his mother and vowed never to return to his estranged father. He settles in Chicago and marries Annie, another lawyer, who gives  up her career to care for their two children, while Beck works extraordinary hours so common in large US law firms.

Annie dies of breast cancer leaving Beck devastated at the loss of the wife he adored. He is left to bring up two small children on his own. He finds it impossible reconcile his demanding legal career with life as a single parent and in desperation he decides to bring his family back to Texas to the father he hasn't spoken to for years. There starts an emotional and warming re-union and a seismic change in Beck's lifestyle.

He moves from the torrid world of big city law to become a Judge in a very small Texas town. While this should be an easy job, he quickly gets exposed to the dark, dirty underbelly of small town politics and fights the control of the town by unscrupulous, rich and powerful people. He also helps to investigate the cocaine overdose murder of the teenage daughter of his best friend at high school. In the process he uncovers corruption, bribery, steroid abuse and more....

Gimenez clearly shows us his love for Texas, and some of his concerns about contemporary Texas.  He explores the time honoured Texas cult of high school football and touches on the exploitation of illegal Mexican immigrants. Beck's daughter, Meggie asks her Grandfather - "JB, what is a Mexican?" " A human being, honey, just like you and me. Some folks around here just ain't figured that out yet."

Beck's feelings about the law and justice are inspirational. "The law is found in statutes and codes and rules and regulations. But wisdom can't be found in the law book. Wisdom is found in life. In death. And every day in between. And justice isn't found in the courtroom; it's found in the human heart."

Mark Gimenez is a writer of quality thrillers. I still have a couple of his books to read - I am saving them until I have time to read them straight through.

Mark Gimenez: The Governor's Wife

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A political thriller - not as good as his other books
Mark Gimenez is a talented author and I have really enjoyed his other legally targeted books. This book is more a political thriller, and IMHO not a very good or believable one.

There is great theatre in political thrillers set in the U.S. because the political and constitutional system is so complex and flawed that it allows authors a wide range of creativity. This time I think that Gimenez has gone too far with this creativity. While I am Australian, I closely follow U.S. politics because of the impact the US on the rest of the world, especially over the last very crucial 4 years.

The main character is a larger than life Republican Texas Governor with the ethics and morals of a tom cat, whose testosterone drives him to govern Texas like a cowboy from the Wild West. His political excesses and lies force his wife to move out of the Governor's mansion to make her mark on the world. She goes to work as a nurse on the border with Mexico where abject poverty goes side by side with the wealth and cruelty of the local drug cartel.

When hunting wildlife on a Texas billionaire's private ranch, the Governor's philosophy is expressed clearly - "Shit, let's kill something, see if that'll perk up our spirits." In the end he doesn't kill any game but instead kills 4 Mexicans youths tending a hidden cannabis plantation on the ranch who are about to rape a young Mexican girl. One of the youths is the son of the head of the drug cartel, who vows to kill the Governor in revenge.

Overnight, because of his actions, the Governor becomes a national hero and starts to believe that God has ordained that he could be the next President of the USA. His philosophy is "Buying control of the U.S. government is man's work, like coaching football and destroying the economy". During fundraising for PAC money for a Presidential campaign, a billionaire donor wants to know what he can get for his money - "I want to have sex with my mistress in the Governor's Mansion in the same bed Sam Houston slept in."

I am not questioning the politics involved (others who live in the US are more qualified to do that), only the credibility and believability of the characters and the plot. It was very hard to rate this book. The writing put it near the 4 star level, but the story and crediblity put it at 2 star or below. Because of my respect for Mark Giminez as an author, I compromised at 3 stars.

Mark Gimenez: Accused

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Super-riveting legal thriller
Within pages I was hooked by this page-turning legal thriller by Mark Gimenez. In his clear, concise style he sets out the major characters, their background and history in the first chapter and without missing a beat jumps straight into the action. I really enjoy legal thrillers and this was among the best I have read. It is a long time since I read a book that I had difficulty putting down.

A. Scott Fenney, a talented and dedicated Dallas lawyer, has not recovered from his beautiful wife, Rebecca, leaving him without warning 2 years before for Trey Rawlins, a rising star on the pro golf tour.  He thinks about her continually. His life centres around keeping his struggling small practice and loyal staff afloat, and lovingly caring for two 11 year olds - his daughter and an adopted African American daughter.

One morning he gets a call "Scott - it's Rebecca. I need you" asking him to defend her when she is accused of murdering the man she left him for. The evidence is damming as her fingerprints are found on the kitchen knife that killed Trey, and the police found her covered in his blood.

Fenney takes on Rebecca's case because he would never be able to live with himself and his daughter if Rebecca was sent to prison for years because of a poor defence. He gradually uncovers the real story behind Trey's golfing, financial and personal life, and the secrets he kept from Rebecca. Fenney delves into the financial rewards and the sexual temptations of the world of professional golf to find the answers.

The plot has as many twists and turns as a roller coaster in an earthquake, culmininating with one of the best a courtroom dramas I have read with many unexpected and surprising outcomes.

Gimenez is a talented writer with amazing character development skills and legal knowledge. I will definitely be reading more of his books.