🌟🌟🌟💫

Based in and around Portland, Oregon, this legal thriller is peppered with several plot twists, a central and darkly terrible crime, a bevy of suspicious characters, and a long and circuitous road that may or may not lead to justice.

Charlie Webb is an average guy, and an equally average lawyer. Never having hit the big times, academically or in his professional life, Charlie is a nice man, also nice-looking, who is somewhat insecure and has been perhaps (a reader will come to wonder) seriously underestimated his whole life.

When Charlie is unexpectedly involved in the biggest legal case of his career, a painting theft that morphs into a multiple murder case, tied to a horrifying kidnapping and underage sex-ring — a case which comes to bear a huge PR profile, and the suspected involvement of participants of the highest order — Charlie’s world becomes riddled with danger, and confusion, coupled with what can only be seen as an unmistakably gigantic professional opportunity.

Charlie’s client throughout this journey is Guido Sabatini (aka Lawrence Weiss) — a six-foot-four-inch artist with flowing blond locks and a penchant for floor-length white caftans — a colorful and comically unique character, with a super-genius IQ, a serene constitution, and an unshakeable conviction that he is protected by God himself.

As Charlie and Guido’s lives tumble out of control, the author’s pacing of the developing story is brisk, intermingled with several court scenes (a natural fit for this real-life author lawyer) that, for this reader, provide perhaps the most interesting aspects of the story.

A mildly entertaining read, perfect for those who enjoy legal thrillers, a hint of outlandishness in one’s characters, plenty of action sequences, and a rapidly complicating story.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.