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Overview
Amid the flash and din of Boston's raucous Chinese New Year's celebration, an elderly man is shot while watching the parade from his window. Anthony Bradley, the son of an African-American judge, is standing across the street at the time and is immediately arrested for the crime.Michael Knight, a young lawyer who's going places, is surprised when Judge Bradley asks him to defend his son in such a high profile and politically delicate case. Luckily, Knight finds powerful support from Lex Devlin, a senior partner at his firm. Once the foremost criminal defense attorney in Boston, Devlin has mysteriously withdrawn from defense work in recent years. As Knight and Devlin investigate and prepare their client's defense, Knight is forced to confront the murky allegations that eclipsed his mentor's career, and enter into the shadow world of gangland Chinatown.From the halls of Harvard to the streets of Chinatown, Knight doggedly pursues an investigation that involves drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, and a corruption scandal that could bring down the most powerful people in Boston.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Fans of the film True Believer will best appreciate law professor Dobbyn's debut, a routine legal thriller with a similar plot. Michael Knight, a junior associate at a high-powered Boston firm, gets asked by a powerful African-American judge, Amos Bradley, to represent his son, Anthony, who has been accused of gunning down a beloved member of the city's Chinese community under cover of a New Year's parade. This assignment brings Knight to the attention of the firm's disgraced legend, Alexis Devlin, who has been keeping a low profile since he was alleged to have participated in jury-tampering to help a client. As the two attorneys search for the truth, Knight ventures into dangerous neighborhoods on the trail of some major league political and judicial corruption. Considering his curriculum vitae—Latino street kid, Harvard law grad and former federal prosecutor—Knight comes across as oddly naïve, while his ignorance of Chinatown's organized criminals doesn't ring true. (Mar.)
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.Library Journal -
Boston attorneys Michael Knight and Lex Devlin, who have been featured in several short stories published in such magazines as Alfred Hitcock's Mystery Magazine, now appear in their first novel. Knight is asked to defend the son of an African American judge accused of murder. Witnesses place Anthony Bradley at the scene of the shooting of a much-loved elderly Chinese man who was watching the city's Chinese New Year parade from his apartment window. Besides defending Bradley, Knight endeavors to wipe clean the stain of jury tampering that has marred Devlin's legal reputation for ten years. For mystery buffs, Dobbyn, a Villanova law professor, peppers his book with insider comic references, such as having a female Boston cab driver named Carlotta (think Linda Barnes's sleuth) zip Knight around town. Readers of early John Grisham and Jeremiah Healy will enjoy Dobbyn's debut for his insider knowledge of the legal system and the defense strategy his protagonists use in court. For legal thriller and mystery collections.
—Jo Ann Vicarel