(2003)Pretty good mystery/legal/political novel as we follow a state senator's lawyer who has been accused and tried for the murder of a fellow lawyer. Needed a bit more editing as we got a little too much detail in the courtroom scenes. Typical of legal novels written by lawyers.

Ellis is one of my favorite authors, even though he did the unthinkable by teaming up with James Patterson in recent years. I realized that I had a couple of his earliest novels that I had not yet read including this one. It look some hunting but I'm so glad I got my hands on this one.

If you love conspiracy theories, politics and legal battles then this book is for you! Jon Soliday, is THE attorney for the Democratic political party in Chicago and the top advisor to his childhood best friend, Grant Tully, who is a senator running for Governor. Things are heating up in the race and suddenly Soliday is accused of murdering a fellow attorney and the most likely alternate suspect is a name from the past. When they were teenagers Soliday and Tully went to a party in which a girl ended up dead and Soliday was initially the main suspect but there was not sufficient evidence to convict. The other key witness that helped clear Soliday back then now looks like he's setting him up for this murder. Why and how to prove it without hurting the Senator's chances of winning the election.

Ellis's claim to fame is that he was the prosecutor in the Rod Blagojevich trial. Interestingly, this book was written long before that happened. Now days he's an Illinois Appellate Judge. But all of this is to say - he knows his courtroom drama! Ellis has a new book that just came out this week with JP - but do yourself a favor and find out how great an author he was solo. ( )