Motion To Kill

It is bad enough not to like your job when you work for a prestigious law firm in Kansas City, Missouri. It gets a little worse when your boss asks you to dispose of documents that would harm the case you both are working on and could damage the firm. Things get even worse when your boss is found dead and floating in the lake and you have no real alibi. But things can get even worse as detailed in this enjoyable novel. As the novel opens, Lou Mason has one heck of a headache thanks to drinking the night before to excess. He has spent the night outside, on a deck chair at the retreat for his law firm. He feels guilty over the case that he lost and plans to quit as soon as possible. He works for Sullivan & Christian, a Kansas City law firm that "... employed forty lawyers to merge and acquire client's assets so they could protect them from taxation before and after death." Their biggest client is a powerful banker by the name of Victor O'Malley. The U. S. Attorney, Franklin St. John, believes that he is dirty and has been building a case against him and now has invited O'Malley to appear before the grand jury. It does appear that O'Malley is guilty of something and Sullivan had asked Mason to lose certain incriminating documents. Mason refused and now has been asked to identify a body that or may not be Sullivan's by the beautiful Sheriff Kelly Holt.It does not help that the Sheriff has discovered a memo from Sullivan stating that Mason asked Sullivan to destroy the documents, that he refused, and that Sullivan was going to fire him Monday morning. It also does not help that Mason has other reasons not to tell the Sheriff everything, both for himself and the firm. They have enough problems without that, but soon Mason realizes after several incidents, that someone believes he knows more than he does. As he dodges attempts on his life, the body count grows and he feels the pressure from all sides.While this novel is very enjoyable, I would not refer to it as a "legal thriller" as it is marketed. Nothing in this 380-page novel takes place in a courtroom and little takes place at the law firm. Instead, with limited character development, this novel as in most action and adventure novels relies on physical confrontation and death to move the story and plot forward. Readers expecting a courtroom style case where the killer cracks on the stand would be disappointed. However, ignoring how the novel is marketed, this is a very good action novel, which uses the law as a thematic backdrop for a complex mystery. In that respect, this work is highly entertaining and a worthwhile read.

Lou Mason is a trial attorney. A major client of the law firm that he works for is under the scrutiny of the FBI for possible involvement in illegal activities. When the senior partner in that law firm turns up murdered, the rest of the organization has to scramble to see just how deep their corporate entanglement goes. Lou Mason is assigned to gathering the details.The situation gets further complicated when another prominent partner is murdered and all signs point to Lou Mason's name being the next on the list. Kelly Holt, the local Sheriff is conducting the murder investigation but it appears as if most of her efforts are spent trying to keep Lou from being killed. It seems that Lou is in possession of some highly volatile evidence implicating some major mobsters. He picks up his old ex-cop buddy, "Blues" along the way to help guide him through the homicidal maze. The situation is complicated and almost all of Lou's associates appear to have enough motives to be suspects. The danger seems to come from all directions.I won't reveal too much of the story here, except to say that Joel Goldman, with his great command of the art of storytelling, does an outstanding job of guiding the reader through a complex plot that embraces a large cast of characters. The story flows along smoothly with goose bump producing situations occurring at just the right intervals. The pace is fast and the dialog both clever and gritty. Although this story has been pigeon-holed as a Legal Thriller, it has the fiber to hold it's own along with the best of the Hard Boiled. With any luck, we'll be hearing more from Lou Mason.

Joel Goldman has produced an enjoyable thriller for his first novel. The characters are interesting, the dialogue crisp and the plot thrilling yet believable. Anyone who enjoys Elmore Leonard's tight dialogue and John Grishim's twisting plots will find this a fast paced, fun page-turner. I would not be surprised if Motion To Kill is nominated for the Edgar Award. I can not wait for Mr. Goldman's next book.

The pace is fast and the mystery is fun, but what really makes this book worth your time is Lou Mason. This guy is funny and smart but incapable of keeping his mouth shut at the right time. Every time Mason opens his mouth, you wonder what bone-head thing he's going to say next. Yet with the charm of Columbo, he manages to solve the crime and keep his friends. It's amazing that he can be so astute at times yet so foot-in-mouth at others, but he is consistent in this way, so I bought into it all around. I couldn't put the book down.

In Kansas City, Senior partner Richard Sullivan of the Sullivan and Christenson law firm asks company trial lawyer Lou Mason to destroy documents that make Client Victor O'Malley look guilty in a federal case. Only three months with the firm, Lou says no and plans to quit because of the illegal and unethical request of his superior. That weekend, the entire staff of Sullivan and Christenson travels to a nearby Pope County lake area. Not long afterward, Sheriff Kelly Holt informs Lou that Richard mysteriously died. Soon someone tries to kill Lou, who concludes the unknown assailant believes he obtained damaging information from Richard. When the firm's lawyers learn that US attorney Franklin St. John is using the power of the grand jury to look at Sullivan and Christenson, the leadership asks Lou to not only stay, but handle the case. He finds connections that would shock a conspiracy buff even if some of the links look wrong to only Lou. Anyone who reads MOTION TO KILL will be surprised that this novel is Joel Goldman's debut tale. The story line never skips a beat as Lou show courage and conviction while investigating two homicides, the Federal inquiry into his legal firm, and the role of his client in both. Lou is a fascinating lead protagonist and his "nemesis" Kelly provides a sexual counterpoint. Lou's constant quotes from his idol, his aunt, provide an interesting gender bender role model. Fans will set in motion a plea for Mr. Goldman to return with more Mason (Lou not Perry) legal thrillers.Harriet Klausner