Publishers Weekly
12/24/2018
Julia Rodriguez, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, works as a barista in a Miami café, in bestseller Grippando’s timely 16th Jack Swyteck novel (after 2018’s A Death in Live Oaks). When she refuses the sexual advances of her boss, he reports her to ICE, and she’s soon arrested by ICE agents, but her daughter, Beatriz, a ninth grader, avoids capture. Attorney Swyteck takes on the challenging task of securing Julia’s release from detention and reuniting her with Beatriz. Julia had fled to America to escape her abusive, gang-member husband, Jorge, but he soon followed her to Miami and will stop at nothing to get her back. Grippando keeps the narrative moving forward at a steady clip, expertly interweaving each character’s point of view into the plot. He brings to life the fear undocumented immigrants face every day, as well as the complicated legalities they confront when arrested. Still, he never forgets that this is a thriller, and Jorge’s ruthless momentum keeps the tension building to a heart-racing climax. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Pulling current events into a tense, action-filled plot is… a specialty of James Grippando. [He] knows how to create a suspenseful plot in which every scene is believable. . . . sculpt[ing] harrowing scenes as he makes us care very much about each character.” — South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Both a thrilling page-turner and a story about love, family, and survival.” — The Big Thrill
“Grippando focuses on building a plot around a deadly situation with terrific characters and scenes so tensely written that I was literally breathless by the finale. . . . The Girl in the Glass Box is a great and pertinent legal thriller that pulls out all the stops straight through to the fiery climax.” — Bookreporter.com
“The Girl in the Glass Box is now Grippando’s most thrilling [novel]. It moves fast and is like the prose equivalent of an action movie car chase. . . . one of the most effectively thrilling legal thrillers that I have ever read.” — ComicBookBin.com
“Grippando weaves immigration law and policy, domestic abuse, and other current social issues into a story that will quickly capture and keep the attention of readers who may be compelled to read this plot-driven legal thriller in one sitting.” — Library Journal (starred review)
Praise for James Grippando: “Grippando, a former attorney, has the legal stuff down cold, and his writing style is impeccable. This would be a perfect time for legal-thriller fans who haven’t yet checked out this series to join the crowd.” — Booklist
“Grippando is equally skillful at ratcheting up the tension and plucking at your heartstrings.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Timely...Grippando keeps the narrative moving forward at a steady clip, expertly interweaving each character’s point of view into the plot...[and] keeps the tension building to a heart-racing climax.” — Publishers Weekly
The Big Thrill
Both a thrilling page-turner and a story about love, family, and survival.
Booklist
Praise for James Grippando: “Grippando, a former attorney, has the legal stuff down cold, and his writing style is impeccable. This would be a perfect time for legal-thriller fans who haven’t yet checked out this series to join the crowd.
Bookreporter.com
Grippando focuses on building a plot around a deadly situation with terrific characters and scenes so tensely written that I was literally breathless by the finale. . . . The Girl in the Glass Box is a great and pertinent legal thriller that pulls out all the stops straight through to the fiery climax.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Pulling current events into a tense, action-filled plot is… a specialty of James Grippando. [He] knows how to create a suspenseful plot in which every scene is believable. . . . sculpt[ing] harrowing scenes as he makes us care very much about each character.
ComicBookBin.com
The Girl in the Glass Box is now Grippando’s most thrilling [novel]. It moves fast and is like the prose equivalent of an action movie car chase. . . . one of the most effectively thrilling legal thrillers that I have ever read.
Booklist
Praise for James Grippando: “Grippando, a former attorney, has the legal stuff down cold, and his writing style is impeccable. This would be a perfect time for legal-thriller fans who haven’t yet checked out this series to join the crowd.
Kirkus Reviews
2018-10-28
Miami attorney Jack Swyteck battles to save an undocumented Salvadorian immigrant caught between the abusive husband she fled and the majesty of the U.S. government.
Barista Julia Rodriguez's job at Café de Caribe ends the moment she emphatically rejects the advances of cafe manager Duncan McBride, who promptly dimes her out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Only Julia's heroism and quick thinking prevent her 14-year-old daughter, Beatriz, from being swept up along with her. Brought to Jack's attention by her aunt, Cecelia Varga, and Jack's grandmother, Beatriz only wants to be reunited with her mother. But that's one tall order, as Jack (A Death in Live Oak, 2018, etc.) quickly learns. Julia's not eligible for asylum because she was charged with a felony back in El Salvador: aborting the baby who was the product of one of the many rapes she suffered at the hands of her husband, brutal gangster Jorge Rodriguez. Flexing his muscles in court, Jack gets Julia released from detention just in time for her to discover Duncan McBride's corpse in her bathtub. Small wonder that Beatriz, faced with her mother's reimprisonment, withdraws into a life-threatening case of resignation syndrome, leading to an ugly paradox: an immigration judge orders Julia released until Beatriz's health improves, but as soon as it does, Julia's detained again even though the price will be Beatriz's relapse. Working with his old buddy Theo Knight, Jack makes two trips to El Salvador, but what he learns there just deepens his client's peril, which turns on another paradox. There's every indication that Jorge Rodriguez has followed Julia to the U.S., but his presence there, if he really is there, undermines her case for asylum, which depends on the argument that she'd face imminent danger back in El Salvador, even as it puts her in clear and present danger here and now.
Grippando is equally skillful at ratcheting up the tension and plucking at your heartstrings. Only the ending, which acknowledges just how intractable the plight of undocumented immigrants has become, is a letdown.
