Life Sentence by David Ellis

From the Publisher

Jon Soliday is legal counsel to a powerful politician - also his childhood best friend - who is running for governor. The two have shared political success and undying loyalty. They also share a dark secret from the summer of 1979: a party that resulted in the death of a teenage girl. Soliday was implicated, but through his friend's political connections, escaped legal trouble.

Soliday remembers little from that night, but carries an uncertain guilt he can't shake. Now, as the players from 1979 fall prey to an unknown killer, Soliday himself is accused of murder. And as the puzzle unfolds, the people he most suspects are those he has entrusted with his defense - his ambitious defense attorney and his oldest friend.

A man's past, both what he remembers and what he fears, has never felt so crushing - and may well leave him without a future.

The Washington Post

Ellis balances plot, setting, pacing, characterization and surprises in just the right measure to create a compelling high-stakes courtroom drama. He also takes time to explore the psyche of lawyers as Turow does so well, but prefers to set his sights on a different generation, usually young turks still struggling to find that balance between personal success and unimpeachable ethics. — Katy Munger

Edgar Award winner David Ellis delivers another complex and compelling novel.... Find a comfortable chair and plan to stay up late.

Publishers Weekly

Ellis follows up the success of his debut legal thriller, the Edgar Award-winning Line of Vision, with an equally intricate and intelligent murder puzzle that feels like it's 100% plot, laid out with clean precision. First-person narrator Jon Soliday, workaholic legal counsel and best friend to state senator Grant Tully, lands in the middle of three homicide mysteries (and an oblique blackmail attempt) in the first 75 pages. First, his protege Bennett Carey shoots an apparent home intruder-in the back. Then, on a mission for Senator Tully, Soliday consults with attorney Dale Garrison on an election issue. Garrison is murdered shortly after the meeting, and Soliday is fingered as the likeliest suspect. Complicating the case is a decades-old secret: in 1979, a teenage Soliday and Tully, on a drunken tear, were involved in a murder that remains unsolved to this day, and the investigation of Garrison's death threatens to blow it open. Ellis couples clear, direct prose with abundant legal detail. Soliday is a laconic and mysterious hero, adding another layer of suspense. The lack of an obligatory love interest is notable. Soliday is divorced and lives with a pair of pampered pugs; brittle ex-wife Tracy blows into the story occasionally to offer moral support but nothing more carnal. What kind of a hero is this Soliday, a successful 30-something with no apparent loved ones? And how reliable a narrator? It's all highly entertaining and full of satisfying twists. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Read nicely by Dick Hill, this political and courtroom thriller is set during a governor's election. Jon Soliday is chief counsel and friend to a powerful state senate majority leader who is running for governor; he is also an ultimate political insider pulling the strings of state government for his party's advantage. Then the tables turn on Jon. Prior to the election, he is charged with the murder of a lawyer who shares a secret regarding the other party's candidate, which could knock him out of the race. However, the trial threatens to expose another secret, one involving Jon, his friend, and the death of a woman during a party in 1979, when both men were teenagers. The story's plot and range of characters are very engaging and hold the listener's attention. Recommended for all collections.-Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ., Parkersburg Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A twisty, swiftly paced second legal thriller puts Ellis (Line of Vision, 2001, winner of an Edgar Allan Poe Award) into the ring with Scott Turow. Jon Soliday, legal counsel to state Senator Grant Tully, discovers that Langdon Trotter, Tully's opponent in the upcoming governor's race, submitted an invalid petition. The irregularity will knock Trotter out of the contest-which, polls indicate, he leads. But Tully tells Soliday that going public with the information might backfire, making the underdog look petty. Instead, Tully suggests that Soliday inform lawyer Dale Garrison about the fake petition and let Garrison use the information to blackmail Trotter into throwing the race. Soliday hates the tactic, but not as much as he hates Trotter's conservative politics. Just before he meets Garrison, however, it's Soliday who receives an anonymous blackmail note. Hand over $250,000, it threatens, or "the secret that nobody knows" will go to "the senator." Soliday sees Garrison, who likes Tully's plan-but, after the meeting, someone murders Garrison. Since Soliday was alone in the lawyer's office at the time, he's suspect numero uno. His plot revving up, Ellis cuts back to 1979. Tully and Soliday, high-school buddies, party with drugs, booze, and a woman who comes on to Soliday. After she and Soliday have heavy sex, the woman is found dead. Did Soliday do it? Is this possible murder "the secret nobody knows"? Soliday claims he blacked out and doesn't remember. Return to 2000, as emotionally coiled lawyer Bennett Carey fights for Soliday. Proceedings appear to move in Soliday's favor, but then they turn in another direction. And another. Then another, as Ellis twists matters perhaps one time toomany. Still, his case clearly shows that clues, like law and politics, can be turned to cast doubt or favor on anyone. This one's all about the puzzle (character detail, though significant, seems familiar and obligatory)-and what a tricky, surprising puzzle it is. Author tour

Product Details