Legal Briefs: Short Stories by Today's Best Thriller Writers

This review based on the original hardcover - 1998... Though a few years on my shelf, reading a tome of short stories - mysteries in this case, edited by well-known author William Bernhardt - the book titled: LEGAL BRIEFS, gives the avid-reader's mind a change of pace... a slow down to the senses of deep concentration into a longer story or novel. Advantage number two is the introduction to writers one may not necessarily "pick off the shelf". The short stories in LEGAL BRIEFS introduced me William Bernhardt himself an author (short story in book is "What We're Here For" - a delightful story with a twist and a pat on the back to the attorneys in the story for their humanity.) Sharing the spotlight are the familiar great writers Phillip M. Margolin; Richard North Patterson; and John Grisham. An introduction to authors Grif Stockley; Jay Brandon; Michael A. Kahn; Jeremiah Healy; Philip Friedman; and Lisa Scottoline. My favorite short story in the LEGAL BRIEFS -- "Poetic Justice" by Steve Martini, a story which has that "zing" in the end, and a "gotcha" to the culprit.

If you expect a lot from this book as a legal thriller, then you sure will be disappointed. However, it's a good collection of short stories written by many writers. Most stories are quite entertaining. The book gives you a glimpse into the writers' different styles and emphases.

I loved almost every story in this collection, with the exception of John Grisham's "The Birthday". I especially liked "The Divorce," by Grif Stockley, "The Jailhouse Lawyer," by Phillip Margolin, and "Stairwell Justice," by Jay Brandon. I will definitely be buying books by the above-mentioned authors...writers that I would have never considered reading before I read their stories in "Legal Briefs." The nice thing about short story collections is if you're bored with one just skip it and move on to the next. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that with this book.

This book is a great read for short story lovers and legal thriller buffs. It is nice to have a respectable collection of short stories in this genre. The stories are fast reads, and are great for bus rides, lunch breaks... Some stories are more entertaining than others, but all in all this is a good compilation. Don't waste time reading author profiles and afterwards. They aren't necessary to enjoy the stories.

This is a great sampler for the legal-thriller reader wishing to branch out from Grisham. (Whose contribution, incidentally, is not up to par). The sincere characters, ranging from a gassy old man to a harried young father, add a welcome human dimension to the legal genre. Some stories, like "Roads," stray too far from courtroom drama to maintain interest, but there are enough page-turners to make "Legal Briefs" a worthy read.