TO SAVE HIS DAUGHTER…HE MUST HELP A KILLER WALK FREE.
Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren’t that different.
It’s been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn’t have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie’s back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy. Eddie only has forty-eight hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial - and win - if he wants to save his daughter.
Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI, Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to defend his ‘client’ and ensure Amy’s safety. With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of the impossible?
IN A BROKEN JUSTICE SYSTEM, YOU DON’T NEED A GOOD LAWYER. YOU NEED A DAMN GOOD CONMAN…MEET EDDIE FLYNN.
I’d spotted another of Steve Cavanagh’s books, Two Kinds of Stranger, in my daily BookBub email. However, when I checked out the title, I found that it was one of ten books in the Eddie Flynn series. So I decided to start at the beginning and bought The Defence. I’m glad I did, as it’s a great thriller to start the series.
The Defence begins in a diner where two men have grabbed Eddie. As they make their way out of the diner, they help him on with his jacket and into a waiting car. It’s in here that he finds out his daughter has been kidnapped and that his jacket has been rigged with a bomb.
The general storyline is that Eddie has been ‘hired’ as a lawyer to defend the head of the Russian mafia. He’s been told that sometime during court proceedings, he must plant the bomb. They will detonate it to assassinate the star witness for the prosecution. On completion, they will release his daughter, but he knows he will probably be arrested for murder. Needless to say, Eddie doesn’t think either of those scenarios will happen. What follows are his attempts to get out of this mess.
The story is told from Eddie’s viewpoint, so we have an idea of what he’s planning most of the time.
My dad told me you can’t con an honest man, but the hard part was getting the dishonest mark to trust you. Good fraud was all about trust
The main protagonist, Eddie Flynn, is an interesting character with a few flaws. A con man in the past who changed much of his life to become a lawyer. He’s separated from his wife with some access to his daughter.
As we go through the story, we dip into Eddie’s past life as a con man and why he trained to be a lawyer. We also find out that he hasn’t lost any of his old skills. His legal nous is also pretty impressive as he demolishes the credibility of some witnesses and the evidence.
There’s a host of other characters, such as the malevolent Russian mob, who have kidnapped Eddie’s daughter. They are pretty ruthless and will stop at nothing to execute their plans, as Eddie’s partner finds out to his cost.
The Defence is a pretty slick thriller with courtroom proceedings thrown in for good measure. It’s a fast-paced story that we’re thrown straight into at the beginning. There are a couple of plot twists and plenty of action, which keep the storyline moving.
The main character, Eddie Flynn, is pretty likeable, and I feel that there is much more to come from him in the series. I’m looking forward to the next.
Recommended…
