Depraved Indifference (A Jaywalker Case, 3)

Nicely done. First person writing is often tedious and self serving. This author knows how to do it right. The pacing was excellent, the dialogue crisp, and the characters had enough depth to be interesting. Early on, we find Jaywalker doing something he shouldn't, especially since he's coming off of a suspension for a tangentially related matter. All through the book, I was waiting for that shoe to drop, with a resounding thud, onto his head. This rather simple literary device added a bit of suspense as a sort of parallel plot. There's another character we don't get to meet as early as we should, so again, a bit of suspense builds as we await his contributions to the plot. And finally, at the end, there is a very interesting twist. I'm sure others will say more about the plot, though I haven't read the other reviews (I write mine before reading the reviews of others). It is this reviewer's preference to avoid spoiling surprises. Be warned, if you do read other reviews you might lose some of the pleasure that this book carries. One final note, there is a lot of law and procedure in the criminal trial that forms the heart of the story. It is handled with a light, deft touch. More to the point, it is extremely accurately done. (This reviewer is a lawyer). Get this book. If you like good stories and police/courtroom procedurals, then you'll enjoy reading this well crafted story. As for me, I'll be ordering this author's other books in a few minutes.

"Depraved Indifference" involves the tragic deaths of nine victims, a school van driver and eight religious school children in Rockland County, New York. The accused drunk driver, a wealthy man in an expensive Audi, allegedly enters the opposing lane of traffic forcing the van off the road. The van bursts into flames and all of its occupants die horrific deaths. Harrison J. Walker aka "Jaywalker" is a suspended Manhattan criminal defense attorney nearing the end of a three-year suspension imposed by the Appellate Division, First Department. He is recruited and seduced to defend the alleged drunk driver by the man's wife who offers him $100,000 to accept the case. Although he cannot handle the case as an attorney under the terms of his suspension, he begins to conduct an investigation into the case as a self-style private investigator. The case is full of twists and turns and we follow Jaywalker from his days as a PI to his reinstatement as an attorney defending his clientThe reader gets inside the case, the courtroom, the jury selection process, the prosecution's case, the community's heartache, and the process of the entire trial as only an experienced trial attorney could have written and presented it. This is the second Jaywalker case I've had the pleasure of reading, the first being "The Tenth Case." I am so riveted by Joseph Teller's tales and writing that I just purchased "Bronx Justice," another one of his novels.Depraved Indifference (Jaywalker).

I love reading legal thrillers and Joseph Teller is one of the best writers out there in this genre. Any Jaywalker novel he writes is worth taking time out to read and this one doesn't disappoint. Plenty of questions plague Jaywalker who gets let off his 3-year suspension early and finds himself representing a rich man who may have caused 9 deaths when a van he allegedly hit bursts into flames after a horrific traffic accident. The worst of it is that 8 of the 9 victims were children and Jaywalker finds himself before a jury fighting for his client against insurmountable evidence. He is hired by his client's wife and gets to know her as she states she is separating from her husband. Jaywalker tries to stay focused on at least getting his client a minimum sentence from the overzealous prosecuting attorney when one courtroom moment blows the case wide open while his client is on the stand.

This is fun! I think Joseph Teller is close to joining the elite among mystery writers. His hero, Jaywalker--a disbarred lawyer with court smarts, integrity and a neat whippet-fast line in throwaway sarcasm--seems likely to join Robert Parker's Spenser and Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch as someone the reader can identify with and enjoy as he wanders through a story that is fairly clear in outline and appealingly serpentine in its details. There is a danger of his work becoming a little formulaic; the plot of Depraved Indifference parallels that of his first book, the 10th Directive (which presents how and why he was disbarred in a scene and with self-justifications that are marvelously scurrilous.) It's a variant on the worldly wise and errant hero who gets entangled with a woman of wiles. He has to play his knight-errant good guy side in a legal battle that at first sight has her (or in this second book, her husband) sure to lose. He niggles away at detail after detail and works his way through to the answer. There is a constant sense, convincingly communicated, of his being a man whose life is on hold. He hates the legal system but loves to be in the game. Much of the action takes place in court, with the witnesses quoted verbatim, along with Jaywalker's side comments and explanations of his strategy. There's the vain and asinine DA, somewhat unconvincingly shown as a clown, a female judge who is strikingly portrayed, and the accused husband who is just a little above a rodent in personality. Teller is effortless in his dialog and the plainness of style makes them real. The story flows well and the style is economical and natural. The book has a lightness that does not become trivial; Jaywalker is very serious about his work and abilities. I started my review by describing this as fun. I chose the word carefully and don't mean to belittle the book. It's an enjoyable read that is also satisfying. It has pace and subtlety. "Fun" captures my own mood after finishing it. I look forward to more Jaywalker stories.