The Last Plea Bargain

January 9, 2012
Veteran attorney Singer turns out another admirable legal thriller that will again draw comparisons to the inestimable John Grisham. Jamie Brock, assistant DA for Milton County, Ga., doesn’t do plea bargains. She’s about justice, but the lines blur when she faces defense attorney Caleb Tate, accused of murdering his wife, Rikki. Tate, who defended the man convicted of murdering Brock’s mother, hatches a plan that dams the system and makes Brock question all she believes about justice. As Brock and lead detective “LA” Finnegan build a murder case against Tate and, perhaps, a relationship, Brock must also deal with Mace James, attorney for her mother’s murderer and death sentence opponent. Brock must unravel the impossibly knotted strings of her mother’s death; her father’s possible malfeasance; an execution; Tate’s role and the roles of two trusted advisers: her boss and her psychiatrist. Singer skillfully loosens the strings and reweaves them into a tale that entertains, surprises, and challenges readers to rethink justice and mercy. Agency: Alive Communications.

February 1, 2012
Jamie Brock, a law student in 2007's False Witness, is now an assistant district attorney. She's tough, and she won't make deals with people she knows are guilty. But she might be forced to change her mind when a noted defense lawyer is charged with murdering his wife. Is it acceptable to violate a personal principle when the alternative is letting a killer go free? As usual, Singer balances traditional legal-thriller elements with Christian themes (the murder victim had recently converted to Christianity), but, first and foremost, the book is a crime story and a cracking good one at that. Brock has matured into a strong, no-nonsense prosecutor, and the villain of the piece, Caleb Tate, is appropriately cunning and evil. The story is loosely based on a real-life case in which Singer, a trial lawyer, participated; some of the details have been altered, but its nonfiction origins lend the book an air of reality that totally made-up stories sometimes lack. Another solid, well-crafted novel from an increasingly popular writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)