This is the eighteenth Swyteck novel since The Pardon (1994), and it’s just as good as the rest. Grippando keeps coming up with complex and timely cases, and this one is first-rate.”  — Booklist

“Terrific … James Grippando has built a much-respected reputation for weaving contemporary issues into intense, believable thrillers that accelerate suspense with each chapter. … Grippando’s sturdy grasp on his characters and his involving plots continue to excel.” — South Florida Sun Sentinel

"A whirlpool of murder, betrayal, and modern-day piracy. . . . Enough eye-popping plot developments for a miniseries." — Kirkus Reviews

Music piracy meets murder in this fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable audiobook. The story features criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck and focuses on Imani Nichols, a pop superstar who is at odds with her estranged husband. Jonathan Davis delivers a superb performance, giving every character a distinct personality that reveals the depth of author James Grippando's story. Davis is at his best with Imani, whose apparent innocence is belied by a series of events demonstrating that she's a wily, hard-to-control client involved in far more than meets the eye. Other aspects of Imani's life interject in ways that implicate Jack's wife, an FBI agent. Davis brings each character to life, making this an unforgettable mystery. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

2023-11-15
A feud between a pop-singing phenom and her ex-husband pulls Florida lawyer Jack Swyteck into a whirlpool of murder, betrayal, and modern-day piracy.

Music mogul Shaky Nichols has sued his ex, the single-named Imani, for defaming him by charging that he stole much of her back catalog when EML Records, the company he controls, simply bought the copyrights in secret. (He’d been about to present them to her as a surprise, Shaky claims, when she filed for divorce.) Even though Imani publicly accused Shaky of pirating her music and urged her zillions of fans to retaliate by pirating the recordings he owns, Jack, her lawyer, manages to get Shaky’s suit dismissed without prejudice, but the trouble doesn’t go away. Even worse, the trouble is linked to the corpse of Tyler McCormick, who was strangled and chained to a piling on Florida’s Isola di Lolando 12 years ago. The FBI presses Imani to meet privately with Russian oligarch Vladimir Kava, whose teenage granddaughter wants a private concert, so that she can wear a wire and record him acknowledging that he and his son, Sergei, are running a global digital piracy operation. When that meeting doesn’t come off as planned, Jack finds himself back in court with his unreliable client, who’s charged, like her ex, with that 12-year-old murder, each co-defendant eager to throw the other under the bus. Meanwhile, Jack’s agreement with his wife, FBI agent Andie Henning, that they won’t discuss their jobs runs aground once again, and his former client and sometime investigator Theo Knight’s trip to London suddenly casts him in the role of accessory to a kidnapping and puts him squarely in the Kavas’ crosshairs.

Enough eye-popping plot developments for a miniseries, which may be exactly the idea.