Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Fiction Subjects

Death Row (Ben Kincaid Series #12)

Name: Death Row (Ben Kincaid Series #12)
Author: William Bernhardt
ISBN: 9780345441768

by William Bernhardt

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Overview

Oklahoma attorney Ben Kincaid put his reputation on the line when he represented Ray Goldman. The seemingly mild-mannered man was charged with massacring an entire suburban Tulsa family. When the prosecution’s star witness—Erin Faulkner, the lone survivor of the slaughter—took the stand, Goldman’s fate was sealed. But just as his date with the death chamber is imminent, Erin abruptly recants her testimony; after seven years of silence, she is desperate to keep an innocent man from dying. Yet the next day, Erin is discovered dead, an apparent suicide. And Ben Kincaid is the only witness to her stunning confession. Now Ben must hunt down the killer who is determined to cover his tracks . . . with blood.

Synopsis

William Bernhardt's powerful series of legal thrillers featuring crusading attorney Ben Kincaid have won him a die-hard following and widespread critical acclaim as a master of the courtroom drama (Library Journal).

Publishers Weekly

An arresting opening sequence gets this latest crime thriller by bestselling Bernhardt (Criminal Intent, etc.) off to a running start, with Oklahoma lawyer Ben Kincaid back for another high velocity courtroom adventure. Seven years before the central events of the novel, a gruesome family massacre puts food flavorist Ray Goldman on death row, despite Kincaid's vigorous defense, on the strength of the incriminating testimony of the 15-year-old sole survivor, Erin Faulkner. Seven years later, Goldman has been given a 30-day reprieve from lethal injection, but time is running out. Simultaneously, a regretful Erin reappears in Kincaid's office, confessing that she was coerced by assertive DA Jack Bullock into making a positive ID in court. This development is just what the defense needs to free Goldman from his sentence, but before she can testify, Erin is found dead, an apparent suicide victim. Foul play is immediately suspected, and Kincaid and his detective buddy Mike Morelli spring into action, the latter hoping to redeem himself after an initial botched investigation. Kincaid and co-counselor Christina McCall desperately buy more time in court from spiteful Judge Derek and are spurred on when Erin's friend Sheila Knight winds up dead in what looks like another suicide. Some readers will be disappointed by Kincaid's minor role in the solution of the crime, but he returns to center stage in the courtroom finale. Bernhardt slips too often into flabby writing ("She had been a bit pudgy as a teenager, but judging by appearances, that baby fat was long gone") and plodding dialogue ("Did you see Erin on the day she... passed?"), but lively plotting should keep fans satisfied. (July 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, William Bernhardt

William Bernhardt is the author of many novels, including Primary Justice, Murder One, Criminal Intent, Death Row, Hate Crime, Dark Eye, Capitol Murder, and Capitol Threat. He has twice won the Oklahoma Book Award for Best Fiction, and in 2000 he was presented the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award “in recognition of an outstanding body of work in which we understand ourselves and American society at large.” A former trial attorney, Bernhardt has received several awards for his public service.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Oklahoma attorney Bernhardt (Criminal Intent) has written 17 other books, most of them legal thrillers featuring lawyer Ben Kincaid. In this latest entry, Kincaid is trying to find evidence to clear Ray Goldman, a death-row prisoner convicted of murdering a family seven years earlier. The novel opens with a brief flashback of the crime from the perspective of the only surviving witness, a member of the slaughtered family. The story then moves to the present, as Goldman receives a last-minute temporary stay seconds before his execution. When the lone witness recants her testimony to Kincaid, he hopes to use the information to clear his client. However, soon afterward the witness is found dead, an apparent suicide. With the rescheduled execution approaching, Kincaid must try to discover the truth behind these deaths before it is too late. Although the premise is not new, this is a gripping, action-packed novel, peopled with interesting characters. Series fans will enjoy, and readers unfamiliar with Bernhardt's regular characters will not be left in the dark. Recommended for most public libraries as a great summer read to suggest to their patrons. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/03.]-Joel W. Tscherne, Cleveland P.L. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Seven years after he failed to get a client acquitted of a horrendous multiple murder, Tulsa lawyer Ben Kincaid has one last chance to keep him from being executed. As usual in Ben's dozen quixotic legal jousts (Criminal Intent, 2002, etc.), it doesn't look like much of a chance. Food-industry chemist Ray Goldman was convicted on the strength of eyewitness testimony from the most unimpeachable source imaginable: Erin Faulkner, the one surviving member of the home invader who took the lives-and, in a particularly gruesome twist, the eyes-of her father, her mother, and her six brothers and sisters. Now, with Ray only a week from his date with the needle and all his appeals exhausted except for one last pro forma motion for habeas corpus, Erin turns up in Ben's office saying that her testimony was mistaken: the bulldog ADA had pressed her to make her uncertain identification positive. The golden opportunity Erin's admission presents to Ben swiftly turns to lead, however, when she's found dead the next morning, an apparent suicide. Ben's old friend Mike Morelli, the homicide detective currently in the doghouse with the chief because of his role in turning a fast-food hostage situation into a bloodbath, disagrees sharply with his new partner, no-nonsense Sgt. Kate Baxter, about whether Erin really did kill herself-or, later, whether her best friend Sheila Knight, who was about to spill some long-suppressed secret to Ben's investigator, did as well. What can't be disputed is that despite Ben's repeated pleas to hostile Judge Derek for just a little more time, he plays so little role in cracking the case that you have to wonder what Judge Derek means when he tells him, "Nice job, Mr. Kincaid."Despite a constant habit of crosscutting that suggests he doesn't trust the drama his scenes create on their own, Bernhardt, unlike his struggling hero, does his very best work in wrapping up this clever mystery.