This is pathetic –  it’s #4 in a series of 4 (so far).  And it would really be best to read the books in order – (take heed).  Unfortunately it was my first, so there were lots of connections I didn’t make and events I didn’t have the back-ground for and even characters who were probably developed in prior books. Myers tried to explain but there was more than what he said in the pages here and I knew it.  There were lots and lots of characters with some of them seeming to drop in from almost nowhere halfway and more through the book.   

A Criminal Justice 
by William J. Myers
2020 / 395 pages
Read by Will Damron 11h 25m
Rating: C- / legal thriller
(for the book as a stand-alone)
(Series – #4!) 

It’s a legal thriller with the emphasis on thriller.  Perhaps illegal thriller might be a better category for this one because it would seem at first glance that neither the prosecution nor the defense cares much for technicalities.   Almost all of them have connections to unsavory side of the law. As a result the book as a whole almost didn’t work. 

The story starts out pretty simple – who shot and killed Edwin Hanson, the billionaire businessman, in the parking garage of his family business building? As we come to find out, the man has two wives still living with a son by each and a younger brother with whom Edwin did not completely share his inheritance. 

The main suspect, arrested and jailed, is Mick McFarland a defense attorney whose wife Piper has a pretty shady past. Mick and David have a long history – Mick has a history with almost everyone in the court system but then he used to be a prosecutor.  

Mick went to prison years prior for killing Jennifer Yamora, a television reporter who was having affairs with both him and another man, David Hanson, the brother of Edwin, the victim.  But thanks to Piper’s efforts (which we don’t see in this book) Mick was released due to evidence conveniently found long after the event.  Jennifer’s brother wants her murder avenged. 

As you can see, the story is much deeper and broader and twistier than a solo novel can stand up to. And everything is thrown in to wind it all up maybe?

I don’t know if it will be worth my reading the first three books in the series because it’s the plot which is serialized and not the overarching relationships or whatever most serials do. This is NOT a stand-alone by any means.

I’ve read some crime series books way out of order – Dave Robicheaux by James Lee Burke for instance, and those are fine as standalones (better in order but …) Back in the days before the internet when we had to shop at indie bookstores I was satisfied with that. Not now – now I’d much prefer to read a good series in order – it’s almost mandatory (not quite – some are more firmly linked than others or linked in different ways.)

So the fault in the rating is mine and this might be a fine series if not a book.