R.C. O'LEARY - HALLWAYS IN THE NIGHT

Synopsis/blurb……

Looking for a summer read? The Verdict is in:

"R.C. O'Leary's legal thriller Hallways in the Night is a great read."

Tampa Tribune: "this legal thriller is certainly hard to put down."

BookStory: "An edge of the seat legal battle. Unputdownable."

MenReadingBooks: "the courtroom scenes crackle....the setting and dialogue sing with pure authenticity."
_____________________________________________________________
When a veteran cop attempts to arrest baseball's home run king, one of them ends up on trial and the other ends up dead.

A page-turner from start to finish, Hallways in the Night will take you on a journey from inner city Atlanta to the upper echelons of the State's power structure where back room deals are made in pursuit of the kind of justice that only money can buy.

As the trial date gets closer, the stakes will get bigger in a case where nobody can afford to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Another new author for me and another self-published book again and another excellent read. I think I enjoy legalistic crime fiction when I allow myself to read it, which is not too often. Note to self …..read more of these books, you know you like them!

With the exception of the odd John Grisham and Paul Levine book over the years, plus another under-rated author – A.W. Gray and his Bino – Texan lawyer books, I haven’t dipped too much into this area of fiction. That’s a shame because tense court scenes when done well can be gripping and absorbing…….the expert on the stand, expostulating all manner of theories to put our man on the spot and the defence lawyer wading in and dismantling and belittling the hired gun whilst redressing the balance of probabilities in the mind-set of the jury……what’s not to like?

Here in Hallways we have a cop, Dave Mackno put on the stand by Maurice Bass, an ambitious prosecutor who has eyes on a political career. An altercation with celebrated Atlanta baseball star, Remo Centrella ends up with our home-run king – dead and our veteran cop and defendant, Dave Mackno in hospital with life threatening injuries.

Mackno is initially cleared by Internal Affairs who investigate the shooting, but with some political shenanigans behind the scenes involving Ray Manning, the owner of the baseball team - the Atlanta Barons, that Remo starred for and the State Governor, Frank Durkin after Manning’s insurance company declined to pay out on the near $50 million policy on Centrella’s life as the killing had been ruled as self-defence; Bass is pressured/bribed/sweetened to prosecute Mackno.

Great trial scenes and court-room confrontations follow, but we also get more of the history of our combatants. Bass and his identity issues as a black man adopted by a white family. Manning and his wives and children and troubled business interests and Mackno – his career as a decent cop, his drinking, his partner and the strength of his marriage and the unwavering support of his wife.

In the course of this enjoyable book, we encounter the following………baseball, steroids, money, oil, celebrity, wealth, cops, fights, death, marriage, affairs, big business, politicians, State Governors, insurance, banks, loans, credit issues, lawyers, investigations, wives and ex-wives, family history, adoption, racial issues, press, publicity, public opinion, TV, trial, judge, jury, evidence, witnesses, cross-examination, perjury, confrontation, verdict, aftermath and conclusion.  

O’Leary is currently penning a follow-up to this his debut and it’s something I will be looking forward to reading in the future. If I can find out where he hails from, I may be able to count this as an entry in my US State Reading Challenge, something which has stuttered of late.

His website and blog is here.

May has been a good month for the quality of books I have read so far, if not the numbers.

Another 5 from 5

Thanks to the author for my copy.