cover image Dead Docket

Dead Docket

Mitchell Graham, . . Forge, $24.95 (398pp) ISBN 978-0-7653-2245-6

In Graham’s muddled second legal thriller to feature John Delaney and Katherine Adams (after Majestic Descending ), Delaney, a New York City law professor, welcomes the opportunity to visit Adams, his long-distance lover, in Atlanta, even if the occasion is a melancholy one. Delaney has agreed to resolve the estate of Sarah O’Connor, a former law student and the daughter of his father’s partner in the NYPD, who fell to her death off a cliff one night while camping in Cloudland Canyon in north Georgia. This routine assignment turns into anything but after Delaney learns O’Connor apparently stole a file from the federal prosecutor’s office where she worked as a summer intern that implicated a major-league bad guy. Improbable action sequences (e.g., a trained psycho killer turns his back on Adams with fatal results) and unconvincing court scenes add up to a subpar effort. (July)