Prime Witness (Paul Madriani Series #2)

by Steve Martini

Overview

A legal thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Paul Madriani series.
 
It started with a series of bizarre double murders. It led to the arrest of one prime suspect. And it sparked the most explosive trial in a lawyer’s career.
 
Paul Madriani knows that the man he’s persecuting is guilty. But one disturbing fact could destroy the case . . . He may not be the only killer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101550267
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/01/1994
Series:	Paul Madriani Series , #2
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	63,444
File size:	410 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Steve Martini worked as a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles and as a capital correspondent at the state house in Sacramento, California. An honors graduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Mr. Martini holds his law degree from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. He has written widely on the law and politics, having covered both state and federal courts, the state legislature, and the administrations of governors Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown. In 1984 Martini turned his talents to fiction, quickly earning positions on bestseller lists and garnering both critical and popular praise for his New York Times–bestselling novels, including The Simeon Chamber, Compelling Evidence, Prime Witness, Undue Influence, The Judge, The List, Critical Mass, The Attorney, The Jury, and The Arraignment. Mr. Martini lives on the West Coast.

Hometown:

California

Date of Birth:

February 28, 1946

Place of Birth:

San Francisco, California

Education:

B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz, 1968; J.D., University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, 1974

What People are Saying About This

Vincent Bugliosi

We unquestionably have a new literary lion in the fictional crime genre.

Editorial Reviews

``The ugly marketplace of justice''--as one character terms the judicial process--is scrutinized with a riveting, you-are-there immediacy in the new legal procedural by the author of Compelling Evidence. When attorney Paul Madriani offers to assist a friend--the county's ailing district attorney, who subsequently dies--in investigating six brutal killings, he becomes entangled in a series of machinations that threaten his career and even his private life. Though Martini's plotting proves ingenious (the story is capped off by a nail-biting encounter in a darkened courtroom), the legal maneuvers themselves take center stage here. From the crime scene--the banks of California's Putah Creek--to a deceptively simple arrest to fascinating pre-trial scheming, Martini packs his novel with the quotidian details of the wheels of justice--and the numerous cogs therein. Madriani's first-person, present-tense narration invigorates the often intricate proceedings with first-rate wisecracks and one-liners. His character descriptions are by turns pithy and funny (frequently both): the prosecuting attorney ``looks like nothing so much as Robert Duvall's incarnation of the Great Santini''; the county's female victim-witness coordinator is ``the crime victim's answer to Don Corleone in drag . . . known as `Attila the Hen.' '' Prime is indeed the word for this involving read. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

More courtroom drama, legal wrangling, and concentrated investigation arise from a series of double murders in a rural California college town. Special investigator Paul Madriani hustles to find the killer before he strikes a fourth time. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/93.

Library Journal

YA-When Paul Madriani agrees to fill in temporarily as Special County Prosecutor, he has no idea that he will become involved in a serial murder case. The search for the ``Putah Creek Killer'' leads to the arrest of a college security guard, Andre Iganovich. Adrian Chambers, the defense counsel, has a shady professional past and a deep-seated dislike for Madriani, who was instrumental in the attorney's previous suspension from the bar association. As the evidence unfolds, discrepancies between the first two double murders and the third one become apparent, leading the prosecution to believe that a copy-cat murderer is on the loose. Threats against Madriani's family, legal posturing, the identification of a witness to the third set of murders, and a killer's desperation combine to produce a thrilling story.-Grace Baun, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA

School Library Journal

When Paul Madriani, at the behest of a sick friend, becomes the acting district attorney of a small town, he quickly finds himself in the eye of a storm created by a series of unexplained murders. Madriani is under attack on several fronts: a county board that has accepted him begrudgingly; an opposing counsel with a vendetta; an inept staff embroiled in office politics; a judge with a personal stake in the case and a deep-rooted dislike for Madriani; and a resentful wife in an already strained marriage. The novel effectively relays the great demands of being a district attorney and also depicts the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of a trial. In some spots, though, the character development is shallow, and the resolution relies too heavily on information never made available to the reader. Still, this letdown comes at the end of a generally satisfying courtroom drama. Marginally recommended.

Scott Wilkens