The Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanagh

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can buy the Devil's Advocate....Here

The Blurb...

A DEADLY PROSECUTOR
They call him the King of Death Row. Randal Korn has sent more men to their deaths than any district attorney in the history of the United States.

A TWISTED RITUALISTIC KILLING
When a young woman, Skylar Edwards, is found murdered in Buckstown, Alabama, a corrupt sheriff arrests the last person to see her alive, Andy Dubois. It doesn't seem to matter to anyone that Andy is innocent.

A SMALL TOWN BOILING WITH RAGE
Everyone in Buckstown believes Andy is guilty. He has no hope of a fair trial. And the local defense attorney assigned to represent him has disappeared.

A FORMER CON-ARTIST
Hot shot New York lawyer Eddie Flynn travels south to fight fire with fire. He plans to destroy the prosecutors case, find the real killer and save Andy from the electric chair.

But the murders are just beginning.

Is Eddie Flynn next?

My Review...

In this novel Steve Cavanagh steps right into John Grisham territory. Not afraid to take on the master in his home ground.

 Our hero Eddie Flynn and his ragtag gang of legal warriors step out of their cormfortable New York, liberal world to take on a death penalty case in the hot, sweaty and deeply racist southern state of Alabama.

Their opponent is a serial killer who just happens to kill people using a most deadly weapon i.e."the law." The local DA gets his kicks filling the electric chair, but he doesn't care who he puts in that chair. They don't even have to be guilty. 

Loved the character of the dodgy DA Randall Korn  who is an evil, disingenuous, sickly individual played in my head by John Redwood the former Welsh Sec John Redwood (yes the guy who mimed the wrong words to the Welsh national anthem and looked pissed off for having to do so) Sometimes my head does cast the strangest characters in books that I read, but this one is bang on. Anyway back to the book.

I have read some criticism of the white supremacist sub plot as being slightly cheesy, parody and over the top and I can definitely see where this is coming from but (and I've said this before and will probably say it again, if you want reality watch a documentary) I think it just within the bounds of artistic licence. Especially when you consider right wing groups did actually storm the Capitol in Jan.

A little niggle that bothers me is that Eddie is hired by Berlin. Berlin is vastly powerful black ops/CIA/Homeland security type who has access to practically unlimited financial and material resources. He is very powerful with the ability to kill without being held to account. While he does so for good there is absolutely nothing to stop him using his unbridled power for selfish or even evil reasons. Absolute power, unchecked can give way to corruption (as can be seen is the political arena in both U.K. and USA). I can't help feeling that Berlin would be Eddie's natural enemy and not his ally (possibly not Berlin per se but definitely the role he occupies) Anyway its a minor quibble and probably only in my head and no one else's. 

As always where Cavanagh shines is piling up the evidence and situation against the innocent on trial, backing him into such a corner that you fear he will never escape. However Eddie and the gang ingeniously and theatrically blow the evidence out of the water to provide their own evidence and unmask the real villain.

Two things I really like about this book (on top of the usual stuff that I like about Cavanagh's books). Its now more of an ensemble rather than just Eddie. Makes for multiple POV and character issues. I also like the fact that they are out of New York and are on the road, it really adds another dimension. I Would love to see Eddie and the gang really out of their comfort zone in the UK. Possibly even in Cavanagh's native Northern Ireland, now that would be a real culture clash.

I think Steve Cavanagh's books are great. The latest author in a great tradition of courtroom dramas from to kill a mocking bird, anatomy of a murder, 12 angry men, in cold blood, a time to kill, the rainmaker, a few good men et al. If you enjoyed any of them you'll love Steve Cavanagh.

Selected Quotes...

"It’s never about the first time evidence goes missing. It’s the efforts to cover up that original sin that will corrupt your soul, utterly."

"Only in the greatest country in the world would a working mother have to weigh up buying medication for herself or her son."

"In a capital-murder case, the jury has to be ‘death-qualified’. They have to be willing to impose the death penalty if the defendant is convicted."

"Doing the right thing has consequences, same as doing nothing. And it can be just as hard to look at yourself in the mirror."

‘When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something.’

About the author...

Steve Cavanagh is an Irish author from Belfast and at the age eighteen he studied law by mistake. He is now the international award-winning author of the Eddie Flynn novels. His debut novel, The Defense, was nominated for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Thriller of the Year, and The Plea won the Prix Polar Award for Best International Novel. Steve is still a practicing lawyer (someday he’ll get the hang of it) and co-host ofthe chart-topping podcast Two Crime Writers And A Microphone. He has been involved in several high-profile civil rights cases, his Eddie Flynn novels have been published in over twenty countries, he’s married with two young children, and in his spare time he is mostly asleep.