Unlike Bronx Justice [bc:Bronx Justice|5930621|Bronx Justice|Joseph Teller|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1239148955s/5930621.jpg|6103063] which was more or less autobiographical, this novel has more humor and less of a sense of doom. It has some funny lines, related to the way things work, like cop-speak. The cop writes in his report: " 'did knowlingly and voluntarily grant them consent to affect entry of the premises.' Jaywalker would go to his grave in awe over how cops abused the English language. It was as though, in order to receive their guns and shields, they were first required to surrender their ablity to spell correctly, to follow the most basic rules of grammar and to write anything even remotely resembling a simple sentence."

Surprisingly this book turned out to be a real page-clicker (when read on a Kindle one can't really talk about turning a page.) The client, a young woman with a problematic past, has been accused of stabbing her elderly husband to death after taking out a $25 million term-life policy on him. Now this is where I got cranky. Samara is eighteen when they get married and they remain married for about 8 years. Fine, no problem. But when they met he was described as an old man of 61 who could have been her grandfather. Now I'm 63 and do creak in the morning (and often in the afternoon,) and yes I could be be, and am, the grandparent of an 18-year-old. But 61 is NOT that over-the-hill.

One quote that I must include. I would assume it reflects the mindset of the author: Long ago, he'd heard that Abraham Lincoln had once boasted that he would never represent a guilty client. Lincoln might have been a great man, but in Jaywalker's book that one remark if accurately quoted, branded him an absolute worthless criminal defense lawyer. Who was he to decide that help should be extended only to the virtuous and withheld from the sinners? To Jaywalker, it smacked of tax relief for only the wealthy. Luckily and in spite of his gross misunderstanding of the defender's role, he had somehow managed to find other work, thought perhaps tellingly, as a Republican.

Excellent book. I'm getting to be quite a Teller fan. ( )

This was a fun one. An interesting legal thriller, if you like courtroom drama. Harrison J. Walker - Jaywalker - has been suspended for some creative tactics and a little bit of misbehaviour. Jaywalker takes his acquittal rate very seriously and his approach to cases is often very different from other lawyers, but his success and his dedication keep him from being disbarred completely. He convinces the judge to allow him to finish ten cases left on his calendar before beginning the suspension and he soon has the list whittled down to one case, the tenth case: Samara Moss. She's accused of murdering her billionaire husband and every single piece of evidence stacks up against her. Jaywalker is determined to win an acquittal. I enjoyed this very much (even though I found the ending farfetched). ( )

The Tenth Case
By Joseph Teller
MIRA
ISBN: 9780778326052
393 Pages

If you are a fan of the legal system, especially court cases, then The Tenth Case, by Joseph Teller will be a must-read for you!

“It had long been Jaywalker’s belief that if you were to pull any ten criminal cases out of a hat, one of those ten could be won by the very worst of defense lawyers...At the opposite end of the spectrum would be the tenth case, one that even the best of defense lawyers couldn’t possibly win...” p. 105

Jaywalker was a great criminal defense lawyer—one of the best. But when he hit his “tenth case,” there were a number of reasons that it was very important for him to win the case. The primary reason was that he had been suspended from practicing and had been able to negotiate being allowed to finish just ten of his outstanding cases. The first nine were easily won!

The second reason was that he was thinking about not returning after the three-year suspension. Yes, three-years was a fairly long suspension, but Jaywalker had been known to pull stunts in the courtroom, and out, and they had finally accumulated to the point where his panel of judges were no longer willing to allow him to practice. He really didn’t want to “not return” if he lost his last case!

And the third reason was the client...a client that he had had once before, and had never quite forgotten...

The client was accused of murdering her husband...

Details of jury selection, the witnesses, the prosecutor’s case—it’s all there for the reader to enjoy. For this, the tenth case has Jaywalker worried. Is there any way by which he can win this case and set his client free?

I think the primary point of interest for me is that in this case the prosecutor and the defense lawyers respect and work together! Refreshing! Not only do you not hear of this very often; but also what it does is allow you to see how effectively it works, when it does happen! Hopefully, this is a sample of real life?

Readers, The Tenth Case will keep you guessing right up to the last page...and after—for you and the legal characters, including...Jaywalker!

G. A. Bixler
IP Book Reviewer ( )

THE TENTH CASE stars out with a bang! This is where we get to know Harrison J. Walker, more commonly referred to as Jaywalker. In this first part, he’s getting ready to be suspended for acts unbecoming an attorney. It’s those acts that make the character endearing. And if I’m ever in need of a defense attorney, I’d love to have Jaywalker on my side. He’s obsessed with winning, which his track record reflects. Winning is not the problem. How he gets there is.

His unorthodox methods have landed him in front of the disciplinary board where Jaywalker is given a three year suspension. He argues he has open cases. Not allowed to put this off indefinitely, the panel consisting of three judges gives him the opportunity to close ten cases within a set time period. His last case, the tenth one, is what this story is about.

The first third of the book was nicely set. It was when the trial begins that this story stagnated for me. If you remember I have the twenty-five page rule. The book has twenty-five pages to grab my interest before I move on to the next. I didn’t have a plan in place if I lose interest in the middle. If it had been a library book, I probably would have stopped reading. Since this book was sent to me to review, I trudged forward, skimming through most of the trial. Luckily wasn’t just back-ti-back trial dialogue. The story flipped back and forth as though this was happening in real time.

The story picked back up when Samara Moss, the one on trial for murdering her husband, took the stand. No more skimming after that. The ending, one of the areas of a book I covet, was a total shocker for me. Loved it. Absolutely loved it.

This book is perfect for those impatiently waiting for the next installment of Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer series. Teller’s next book, Bronx Justice, will be out in April of 2009.
My copy to be given away at http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com. Look in the right sidebar under Giveaways. ( )

Joseph Teller's novel, The Tenth Case, was true to life, notably with regards to the little nuances of the preparation for and the actual trial process. In one respect, it was a refreshing change from many legal thrillers I have read in the past in that, despite Jaywalker's blurring of convention, the author did not turn the story into a run for your life, action packed thrill ride with gun or fist fights. Just the same, the novel was plenty suspenseful as Jaywalker struggles to defend a woman whose innocence even he questions as the trial unfolds. There were a couple of slow spots in which I worried that the author had gone into too much detail. However, I also realize that my familiarity with the court process might have contributed to that feeling. Even then, the book would pick up again right away and not once did I lose interest in the story line or the characters.

Defense attorney Jaywalker is a bit of a maverick, not afraid of making his own rules as he goes along. It has obviously landed him in trouble, resulting in his three year suspension from practicing law. He has a conscience and a sense of fair play, however, that balances out the "bad boy" image. He’s easy to like and no doubt a good person to have on your side in a pinch. Samara Moss straddles that line as well. I never completely warmed up to her character, but it was easy to see how the past impacted the decisions she would make throughout her life.

Jaywalker is one of those complex characters that has many layers, some of which were peeled back enough to tempt the reader to want to learn more about him. I look forward to reading more by Joseph Teller and seeing what trouble Jaywalker can get out of next time. ( )