Missing Witness

Publishers Weekly

In his promising debut, trial lawyer Campbell delivers an intriguing, if often overly technical, story of long-buried family secrets and the blurred line between lies and the truth. In 1973, Doug McKenzie, a new associate at a prestigious Phoenix firm, is thrilled to work with famed trial lawyer Daniel Morgan. When the son of a wealthy rancher is shot dead in his home, Morgan and McKenzie are hired by the victim's father, Ferris Eddington, to defend his daughter-in-law, the beautiful Rita Eddington. McKenzie has known the Eddingtons since childhood and can't believe Rita killed her husband. But when the only other suspect is Rita's mentally disturbed 12-year-old daughter, Miranda, McKenzie knows it will be the trial of his life. While Campbell certainly knows the ins and outs of the legal system, the plot meanders in the middle, becoming too bogged down with procedural particulars to sustain the reader's interest. Despite an outcome that's not as surprising as it should be, legal suspense fans will be well rewarded. Author tour. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Library Journal

In Campbell's debut legal thriller, Dan Morgan is a Phoenix-based Perry Mason-like defense attorney trying to uncover the true culprit behind a murder. A woman and her daughter enter a home, gunshots are fired, and the woman's husband is killed; the outcome seems obvious. But, surprisingly, the father of the deceased asks Morgan to defend his daughter-in-law, and Morgan realizes that everything is not clear-cut after all. Morgan's assistant narrates, giving the story an odd hero-worship perspective. The main plot moves sluggishly toward its predetermined conclusion, and the lack of decent twists will bore fans of courtroom thrillers. Cut out all the scenes of the characters eating and drinking, and the text would be about 300 pages shorter. Campbell clearly writes what he knows-he practices law in Salt Lake City-but he tries too hard to create a literary work as opposed to just a fun and interesting read. The characterizations are also all over the place. Purchase with caution. [See Prepub Alert, LJ6/15/07.]
—Jeff Ayers

Kirkus Reviews

An engaging courtroom drama along the Turow/Grisham line-the author's debut. A woman and her 12-year-old daughter enter a house; a witness outside hears six shots fired. Inside, the woman's husband lies dead. The problem, of course, is an old one: How can it be proved which person committed the murder? The wrinkle in Campbell's novel is that almost immediately after the murder the daughter lies in a catatonic state, the result of either having committed a violent act or having seen a violent act committed. The defense lawyers rush to trial, in part so that the killing can be pinned on the unresponsive daughter, now confined in a psychiatric hospital. The defense is successful, but immediately after the verdict the daughter wakes up from her catatonia and matter-of-factly claims that her mother was the killer. The ultimate twist of Campbell's novel is that the same lawyers are now hired to defend the daughter, but they have just "proved" her guilt and now must argue the other side, blaming the mother for the murder. The novel's premier character is Dan Morgan-former Marine, devotee of cigarettes, Coors beer and a brilliant defense lawyer. (It's a little hard to credit that the "best legal mind in America" is partner in a law firm in Phoenix and keeps his cigarette pack rolled up in his socks.) The narrator is Doug McKenzie, a newly minted lawyer who is Morgan's naive associate on the case and who is not, he admits, "a threat for Boy Orator of Arizona." While McKenzie feels Morgan's charismatic pull, he is also aware that Morgan might be manipulating him in order to clear his clients. Morgan's penchant for benders eventually leads to the necessity of McKenzie making the closing argument inthe daughter's trial. Ingenious plot, serviceable prose. But as in the best examples of this genre, Campbell keeps the pages turning. Agent: Richard Pine/InkWell Management