The Jury Master
Robert Dugoni, . . Warner, $24.95 (438pp) ISBN 978-0-446-57869-1
The most impressive thing about this gripping legal thriller is what it doesn't do. Dugoni, a lawyer who coauthored a nonfiction book about an Idaho worker brain-damaged in 1996 by cyanide fumes, opens his debut novel with a wrongful death attorney in San Francisco, David Sloane, about to make his closing remarks defending a corporation in a similar case. Sloane, who has won 14 cases in a row, hates his arrogant client and must face an obviously hostile jury. But instead of devoting many chapters to the case, Dugoni quickly moves into some unexpected and very interesting territory: a recurring childhood nightmare Sloane shares with former CIA agent Charles Jenkins, apparently a complete stranger. Meanwhile, unstoppable West Virginia police detective Tom Molia investigates the suicide of a top adviser to the president, and what he finds draws Sloane and Jenkins closer to the truth behind their shared terror: an international conspiracy 30 years in the making. All of Dugoni's characters have a fresh and believable edge, and there is plenty of action in far-flung settings. One looks forward to Sloane's return.
Reviewed on: 01/09/2006
Genre: Fiction
Downloadable Audio - 1 pages - 978-0-7393-0507-2
Hardcover - 640 pages - 978-0-7862-8778-9
Mass Market Paperbound - 496 pages - 978-0-446-61707-9
Open Ebook - 265 pages - 978-0-446-59399-1
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 978-0-446-53965-4