Overview
Nelson Connor has finally hit bottom: He must quit drinking or he will lose his career and family, not to mention what's left of his self-respect. Flunked-out art student Lawrence Gary and his explosive prison pal Torino Dentz are also changing their ways. Newly paroled, they've sworn off petty crime and are looking for the score that will lead them to the big time. They think they've found it when the perfect pigeon enters their sights - a boozed-up judge who has left some incriminating evidence behind after his latest bender. All it takes is a murder, a frame-up, and a demand for a hundred grand. But Gary and Dentz have miscalculated. Nelson Connor is sober now. He has the powers of the bench and the help of his clever pals from Alcoholics Anonymous. Connor not only wants to salvage his life, he wants to regain his honor. And he's not about to let a couple of blackmailing thugs stand in his way.Editorials
Kirkus Reviews
Cool, contrived, but smooth and by-the-numbers debut thriller pits a recovering alcoholic judge against a blackmailing ex-con.After three true-crime books (Forever and Five Days, 1992, etc.), Cauffiel applies Elmore Leonard's mano á mano formula on Leonard's home turf, Detroit. Forty-ish Wayne County Circuit Judge Nelson Connor, unnerved by the despair that haunts his inner-city courtroom and the chilly silences of his marriage, knocks back a few too many at a local dive, where his Wayne State college chum Jimmy Osborne, a good boy gone sleazy, gives him a vial of cocaine to prop up his spirits. Showing less wisdom than one would think possible, Connor not only accepts the drug but writes Osborne a check for the merchandise and stupidly pockets the vial. A few hours later, cops haul a seriously drunken Connor out of his car for reckless driving. They find the vial in Connor's car but agree to let him off lightly. Then Connor refuses to disqualify himself as Osborne's sentencing judge, hoping that no one will find out that they're buddies. All this provides grist for the grinding stone of Lawrence Gary, a maliciously cunning ex-con photographer who gets his hands on Connor's check, tries to blackmail the judge, and maneuvers himself into a tawdry affair with Connor's wife Katherine. Embraced by the treacly sweet camaraderie of a local AA chapter, Connor tries to hold Gary off until Gary actually kidnaps Katherine, forcing a climax involving pistols and fisticuffs on the dramatically scenic Mackinaw Straits Bridge. Cauffiel's crooks are standard issue and his formulaic plot offers few surprises, but his disillusioned, morally conflicted judge carries the show as he struggles to stay on the wagon while fighting for the ideals he used to cherish.
Derivative, gear-grindingly slow in places, but strongly evocative of the mean-spirited, morally bankrupt placelessness of Motor City and environs.