Wrongful Death

Here I am. It's 1:54 AM. I should have been asleep for three hours already; instead, I just finished reading "Wrongful Death". Couldn't put it down at the end. It was an enjoyable book to read, although it dealt with a soldier's death in Iraq. And a few more deaths along the way. It was a well-crafted novel that includes a likable and skilled lawyer, David Sloan, his capable friend Charles Jenkins. And throw in a strong widow, Beverly Ford, and several other characters that you'll know by the time the book draws to a close. It has a great plot twist near the end that one cannot anticipate, and it adds the final seasoning to the well-crafted book.

The second in what I hope will be a long series of David Sloan novels by Robert Dugoni, this book succeeds in making the improbable believable. When Sloan sets out to sue the federal government to obtain benefits he believes belong to the family of a National Guardsman killed in the Iraq War, he must overcome a formidable barrier--the doctrine that prohibits soldiers or their families from suing the US government for injuries received serving while in the line of duty. The complex story unfolds stateside, but also in a series of flashbacks on the part of the troops involved in the battle. In some ways, this book reminded me of Rules of Engagement, which also used flashbacks to unravel the events surrounding deaths in the first Gulf War. However, while Rules of Engagement focused on the war experience itself, Wrongful Death is a richer experience because it develops not only the characters of the squad members, but also the character of Sloan, his investigator (Charles Jenkins) and their respective families. And, although the general nature of the solution to the puzzle presented in this book seems predictable, the actual details were not at all what I expected. All in all, I enjoyed this book considerably. It was well-plotted and peopled with believable characters who draw you into their respective stories. Some of the plot twists stretched the limits of credulity, but the end result was worth the trip. Dugoni is a welcome addition to the ranks of authors of legal thrillers!

I have never read Robert Dugoni before so didn't really know what to expect. I was drawn in and engaged from the very beginning. The plot itself is not mind-blowing or even surprising. What was surprising was the execution. The main character Sloane is believable and human, the supporting characters Jenkins and Alex are what muscle should be, tough but also central to the theme of the book. In particular when I say this book had a little bit of everything I was referring to the following: 1. This is at its essence a legal thriller. In that sense Grisham comes to mind. However, what I appreciated was that this was more of vintage Grisham where there was a lot of research into specific legal issues so that in addition to being entertained you actually walked away with a useful nugget or two of knowledge. In this case the research into the Feres Doctrine and army law was interesting to me. 2, Then I got a little Robert Parker with the classic Spenser series out of this. A tough detective story with muscle supporting characters while not rocket science has always played well for me and this was well written and executed. 3. Finally a good story needs to have heart. Sloane's motivation in taking the case i.e. to stand up for a army man who stood up for others, his kid fishing on end reminding one of how single tracked children can get from time to time are all human themes that run through the book and make it all very interesting and act as a great foil to the action and law. The only criticism that I have is that for me it dragged a little in the middle but on the whole a great read, much enjoyed and I look forward to more installments.

"Wrongful Death" is a terrific legal thriller that far surpasses Dugoni's previous efforts. The timeliness of the novel, which centers on the efforts of a family trying to uncover the truth about the death of their father in Iraq, helps make this an emotional story as well as an exciting one. The taut pacing of the story is punctuated by brief and extremely tense segments revealing the action in Iraq that led to the demise of the soldier. The one flaw in the novel is that the main character seems to have 20/20 foresight, and is superhuman in his ability to plan ahead in order to stay out of trouble. Overall, I heartily recommend this book.

"Wrongful Death" is a fast-paced legal thriller with a large side helping of military-conspiracy. It wasn't my favorite legal thriller (my favorite genre of mystery) but I enjoyed it very much. The book started out a little slow & disjointed for me but I soon got into the flow of it. So keep going even if you don't love it for the first 20 pages or so. After I finished the book, I realized this is the second David Sloane book (the first being The Jury Master). If I had read the earlier book, I might have gotten into this book sooner and understood what I thought was a cryptic remark by an opposing attorney about how the jury forgot everything when Sloane gave his closing statement. Even though it would have been better to start with the first book, this book did pretty well standing on its own. In this book, Sloane spends little time in court and none in front of a jury; his work involves investigating the facts surrounding the death in Iraq of his client's husband who had been serving in the National Guard. The "legal" part of this legal thriller concerns a doctrine that would preclude recovery if the death was incident to service. Sloane thinks his client's case is a loser but decides to look into the circumstances. From that point on, the book is full of suspense and danger not only for Sloane and his investigator Jenkins (also a character from the earlier book) but for their families and the witnesses to the Guardsman's death. The ending was satisfying in a number of ways, including a tender moment involving the slain Guardsman's young daughter. Sometimes the plot gets to the brink of believability but the story is good enough to keep the reader going. Conspiracy theorists will have even less trouble believing everything that happens. I recently read two different thrillers involving the government/military and large government contractors. This one was definitely the better of the two.