Yehhh for me! Kindle offered this book for free and I'm so glad I took their offer. It was a fun, fun read with the main character, Oliver (Ollie) Olson more than just a likable fellow. Coming from a blue collar family, Ollie is among students who are just semesters away from taking the bar exam, but due to hard work, Ollie finds himself a summer intern in a hoity-toity L. A. law firm. His fellow interns are from east coast schools such as Harvard and Yale which makes him feel even more alienated. He's so likable though that you cheer for him all the wy.
His long time girlfriend who he loves and admires professionally, happily found her way to a non-profit investigating credit bureaus which have been placing erroneous information on consumer's credit reports. Work which involves helping the poor in contrast to Ollie's work at the prestigious law firm. She's worried he'll lose his soul along the way. He's sure that he's grounded enough to not let that happen.
His summer work involves obtaining information to present a federal habeous petition to the court based on ineffective assistance of counsel (12 years prior) of a man convicted of murdering his wife. If granted, the murderer would be released from prison. However, the attorney who represented the convicted murderer is one of the most respected and sought after defense lawyers in the state so it's almost laughable that Ollie will find anything strong to base the habeous petition on.
The firm doesn't expect Ollie to find anything. The only reason they agreed to represent the convicted murderer is because it was such a high profile case; the convicted murderer was a U. S. senator at the time of the murder.
Ollie works digently to turn over every stone looking through all past records and leads to assist the firm's attorney who will make the petition. As Ollie proceeds, he finds the only other suspect was the boyfriend of the senator's daughter and Ollie finds his first real solid clue which may help the firm win the case. As Ollie turns over more stones, he finds himself being followed and threatened as he digs deeper into the case.
The story moves easily from beginning to end with a surprise ending which comes pretty fast. I enjoyed the dialogue throughout and wondered how could this be a first time novelist? It was spot on for characterization and site description.
All the elements expected in a first rate mystery/thriller were in this book. That's one reason I'm so proud because I got a first rate book to read for free! I will definately read the other three but am not expecting a bargain.
Lastly, I am so curious about the author. I read (somewhere) that Fingers Murphy is a pen name, so who is this talented author who dislikes the publishing world so much? Under any name though, he's certainly talented. I hope he'll be around for a long time.
