Key Witness

Unlike many thriller writers, Freedman is willing to experiment. He followed his debut crime blockbuster, Against the Wind, with a coming-of-age drama, The Obstacle Course, and the mystery melodrama House of Smoke. Now he's written a legal thriller. But while his big talent keeps him from ever turning out a mediocre novel, sometimes he misses the target--including here, despite a crafty setup that sees Wyatt Matthews, 48, a top corporate attorney in an unnamed city that's probably Boston, dealing with midlife crisis by volunteering for six months as a public defender. Wyatt's sharp lawyering gets probation for 18-year-old Marvin White, who's black and rightly charged with armed robbery, but immediately Marvin is re-arrested and accused of being the serial killer known as the Alley Slasher. Readers know that Marvin is innocent of the killings and that the hardened con who's implicating him in exchange for reduced time is lying. The novel's suspense, which is only moderate, hinges on Wyatt figuring out how the con is working his scam and successfully defending Marvin at trial. Freedman enriches the novel considerably by depicting how Wyatt's foray from privilege into Marvin's world of urban despair strains the lawyer's family, pushing his trophy wife into hysteria and him into an affair. While the novel sizzles as a sociologic document, it fizzles as legal drama. Wyatt scores one triumph after another at the trial, with his only serious setback due to a shooting that Freedman pulls out of a hat. Arbitrary complications in a similar vein stud the novel, giving it a cobbled-up feel that does ill service to its strong prose, characters and insights. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selections. (July)