Review: Grisham is safe...for now
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 23, 2011
Take a brutal murder, rumors of infidelity, a tainted conviction, an ambitious law student and the backdrop of Los Angeles, mix it with some seedy, noir characters and what do you get? In the best of worlds, the reincarnation of Raymond Chandler. Well, you can't always get what you want.In "Follow the Money", Fingers Murphy tries his best to deliver the goods. Oliver Olson grew up middle class in Riverside, California and now is a second year law student with a summer job working at the prestigious LA firm of Kohlberg & Crowley. His boss assigns him to research an appeal of the twelve year old murder conviction of former US Senator James Steele. Police responding to a 911 call found Steele covered with his wife's blood, her body lifeless in a bathtub. He spun a tale of an intruder who murdered his wife as the Senator watched TV, and then cut Steele's hand before escaping. Prestigious attorney Garrett Anderson defended Steele, but lost the case. Oliver is tasked with finding legal miscues in the defense, thereby invalidating the conviction.Oliver, already reveling in the prestige of working for K & C, takes his job seriously. He begins interviewing everyone connected with the case, beginning with the imprisoned Steele. Immediately, strange things start happening. People are following him. He finds his apartment lights on twice after coming home. The case against Steele was circumstantial and the police perhaps overlooked potential witnesses, some of whom are openly hostile to Oliver. Oliver complicates his life further by having a wild one night stand with another summer law student while his idealistic girlfriend labors at her volunteer job at the Legal Aid Society.Well and good, thus far. The story has a number of ingredients and twists that, while not exactly original, could provide a rollicking Grisham-like knock off, a great beach read. Sadly, things fall apart after that. No spoilers in this review. Suffice to say that the breakthrough in the case revolves around a pair of professional oversights by police and an attorney that can't pass the suspension of disbelief test.Moreover, if you believe that the main character in a genre novel needs to demonstrate some heroic qualities while overcoming obstacles, what about this passage from the epilogue as Oliver reflects on the case:"I stared at Reilly as if into a mirror, or a perspicuous pool reflecting images of a future not yet written. I realized then and there that, despite all that had happened to me, I was essentially a weak man, a child thrown to the world. I had not escaped with my life because of my smarts or skills, but luck and luck alone. At each step I was confronted by my own hesitating self, afraid to do necessary things and opting instead to play it safe."Rules are meant to be broken, but if you break a fundamental rule of character development, you'd better be able to pull it off.