The Judge

The Judge by Steve Martini

One of those books that I found in my garage that I obtained somehow, somewhere, a couple of decades ago.  Giving this book a try, I came to the conclusion that it was overall well written, yet I honestly don’t have any urge to read anything else by this author anytime soon.

This is one of those legal thrillers written by an author who is also, obviously, a lawyer.  This description immediately makes everyone first think of “John Grisham”.  Well, Steve Martini is no John Grisham, but to be fair, neither is anyone else.  Reading this book, it’s very obvious, however, that Martini is an expert in legal matters.  Such qualities don’t necessary translate to a well written story, but just because Martini might not be the best at what he does, this is still an overall satisfying read.

The hero in this book is lawyer Paul Madriani.  A widower with a young daughter.  Having a main, or in this case, recurring character with such a background allows the author to stretch the pages a bit further since it allows our hero to have romantic interests as well as coping with the hard life of being single parent.  A task that is portrayed as somewhat more difficult for a man than a woman in this story.

Initially in the story, Madriani is approached by a female friend (also single, also a lawyer) that Madriani happens to have a wee crush on.  She needs his help, as her police officer cousin has become a suspect is some foul, police corruption goings on.  As our hero starts his investigation, we begin to see the legal profession with all of the exposed seams – including a less than helpful judge.  It seems Madriani and this judge have never really gotten along too well during their careers.  So Madriani has to double much of his work efforts that seem to only yield about half of the desired results.

Well, lo and behold, the Judge soon gets arrested for a crime!  Madriani first breathes a sigh of relief.  However, as we turn the pages, it seems as though Madriani will now end up defending the Judge in a murder trial.  So, yes, it’s a predictable twist of fate, and from this point on, the story is basically an intricate view of the judge’s trial.  We meet other lawyers, the prosecuting attorney, the “new” judge, and a lot of witnesses.  It’s all done very well, yet to be honest, I found the details too meticulous.  I feel the author could have told a better story with fewer words.

Speaking of “fewer words”, this leads to another criticism I have with this book.  The book is told in first person, and the author feels it necessary to tell us what the character is thinking every time he utters a sentence.  So when the protagonist says something randomly inconsequential such as “I enjoyed a piece of toast”, the author will then spend a paragraph or two on his character explaining what makes a really good piece of toast.  This wears on the reader in a hurry.  (Such an event didn’t actually happen in this book, but I’m trying to make an analogy.)  I found that in instances where the author did NOT bog us down with Madriani’s thoughts, made the book much more enjoyable as the story progressed on a much more digestible level.  The author should give his readers a bit more credit in the imagination department.

I’ll also say that the book did get better as it went on.  The second half was much better than the first once the trial “got going”.  This was a pretty good read, and I imagine the more that one really loves to read and study the law, the more that they would enjoy this book since it was so thoroughly detailed.