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A Conflict Of Interest (2011)

by Adam Mitzner(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1439157510 (ISBN13: 9781439157510)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Gallery Books

review 1: This was a surprisingly good book for a first time author. It may be a little bit long with maybe a little too much introspection but it's definitely worth reading. The main character is certainly flawed. It's not so much a who-done-it as a character study. There are a lot of twists and turns and just when you think things are solved new issues pot up. Everything is wrapped up by the end of the book so it doesn't seem to be a series with continuing characters.
review 2: Our hero, Alex Miller, is the youngest ever partner at a very prestigious NYC law firm, working - seemingly all the time - as a criminal defense attorney. He's married to a wonderful, beautiful woman and has the perfect 5 year-old daughter. So of course we know his life is about to change d... morerastically- for the worse - and it does. During his father's funeral he is approached by, and decides to represent, his father's "best" friend in a securities fraud case. What the reader learns - and Alex too, although not as quickly - is that everything is not as it seems - the case, Alex's marriage, his client, his partners and peers - this phenomenon so prevalent that the "twists" become predictable very early on - which doesn't help in the thriller/suspense department.Without spoiling the plot/twists, I found this book very muddled, much too predictable to be a thriller, yet not deep enough to be a character study. The characters are not very likeable, which is not a problem in and of itself - although I believe the reader is supposed to empathize with many of them. Mrs. Alex, an artist, is a shrew; happy with the financial perks of being married to a successful man, but unhappy with her life and blatantly passive/aggressive with her over-worked husband. Alex's client, portrayed as both mysterious and confident, is incredibly and predictably manipulative - keeping Alex in the dark every step of the way. Even Alex's mother, distraught after the sudden death of her husband, has an agenda of her own. And poor Alex, hard-working yet angst/guilt-ridden, is caught in the middle of all this - Pathetically making one bad decision after another - in his marriage, with his client and specifically with a co-worker - constantly paying the price, yet never learning from his mistakes.This is a very long book. Topics such as the mechanics of law firms' billing procedures, voir dire (jury selection), whether a defendant should testify and even what nosh is served when lawyers sit down for a meeting, are all covered in minute detail - so if you are new to "legal" novels and/or never watched an episode of Law and Order, this is an excellent primer. If you are familiar with the above, the term repetitive clutter comes to mind.Conflict of Interest has received rave reviews - so I am somewhat in the minority here in rating it "below average" at best. The attempt by the author to emulate Turow - or at least mimic him - is an admirable starting point - but doesn't pan out in the finished product.Pass on this one. less

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