Abiding Conviction by Stephen M Murphy

About the Book:

Lawyer Dutch Francis faces an impossible situation—search for your missing wife or defend your high-profile client

Dutch Francis is a defense attorney in the case of a judge accused of killing his wife. Just as the trial is about to begin, Ginnie Turner, Dutch's wife and TV news broadcaster, goes missing.

Under extreme duress, Dutch tries to extricate himself as the judge's attorney—or at least postpone the trial. The judge insists that the trial proceed without delay and that Dutch remain his attorney.

Exhausted by the murder trial, Dutch confronts an ineffectual police department, suspicious that he is involved in his wife's disappearance. He takes matters into his own hands as he struggles to balance both responsibilities—the trial and finding his wife—pushing him to the brink of losing everything he holds dear.

At first Dutch suspects that Ginnie was kidnapped in retaliation for her recent stories about sex scandals. But after receiving bits of her in the mail—fingernails, hair—he realizes the kidnapper's intent may be to punish him.

Could his defense of the judge be the reason?

My Review:

This is an interesting novel about an attorney trying to survive under the pressure of a high profile case while attempting to find his kidnapped wife. Because he was preoccupied with his wife's condition, the courtroom scenes were not as compelling as in other novels I have read. Dutch was reluctantly invested in the case and did not give it his all.

He's an attorney and knows the law yet he trespasses and does other acts that jeopardizes the investigation. I did like his tenacious attitude, however, as it seems the police are moving ever so slowly. I sometimes wondered if it was realistic for a person such as Dutch would do some of the things he did in his attempt to find his wife.

In the end there was an interesting parallel of husband wife relationships between the attorney and his wife and the accused and his wife. I liked this novel, a combination of legal procedure and suspense. While it is the third in a series, it is the first I've read and I felt it was fine on its own.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author:

Former trial lawyer Stephen M. Murphy is the author of the Dutch Francis thriller series. A Boston native, he is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the University of San Francisco School of Law. He served as a law clerk to the justices of the New Hampshire Superior Court, and while in New Hampshire, he worked on a murder trial that inspired his first Dutch Francis novel, Alibi, which was followed by About Power, and now, Abiding Conviction. He currently lives in the San Francisco area.

Oceanview Publishing, 320 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)