The Bottom Line: A first-rate, hugely entertaining legal thriller. Get ready to fall hard for Frank Connor.
Washed-up Texas lawyer Frank Connor is presented with the kind of second chance that seems too good to be true. Broke, professionally damaged and pursued by the IRS, Frank lands a lucrative position with prominent Houston plaintiff’s attorney Dickie Glatz. The job also comes with the firm’s biggest case.
Wealthy oilman Ridge Salter has supposedly fallen from his sailboat and drowned, leaving behind a $40 million life-insurance policy. Frank knows next to nothing about insurance law, but he stands to earn a substantial share of the firm’s fee, and he soon discovers an accidental-death provision that could double the amount at stake. What’s more, the lawyer who previously handled the case disappeared after a suspicious drug arrest.
In CD Wilsher’s second Frank Connor series book, the author piles layer upon layer of intrigue in the early going, creating significant suspense. The autopsy report is missing. Two numbered investigative reports have vanished from the file. The insurance company has subpoenaed records from a psychiatrist Ridge never disclosed on his application. And just when it seems that things can’t get much worse, Wilsher reveals that the case is assigned to a judge with whom Frank has an ugly history.Â
While it may be obvious that the case is heading from a questionable accident to possible homicide, the ride Wilsher engineers along the way is one worth taking. Thematically, Wilsher is interested in greed and the ease with which facts can be arranged to benefit whoever controls them.
In Frank, Wilsher has created a particularly good guide through that world given Frank’s own checkered history. Money matters enormously to him, and the possibility of a life-changing payday repeatedly competes with his better judgment. In a genre filled with cookie-cutter attorney heroes, Wilsher’s flawed, morally ambiguous attorney is a standout. Late in the novel, a major reversal forces Frank to reconsider not only the evidence, but his assumptions about who has been manipulating the case and why. The clever reveal gives several earlier clues a different meaning and pushes the mystery toward a more personal reckoning than the original insurance dispute ever suggested.
As a bonus, Wilsher’s dry, sardonic humor keeps the legal material lively without undercutting the danger. The novel’s very last line will get a chuckle out of even the most jaded readers.
