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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
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Searching... | PRZS3000000725 | PS3552.R315 B73 1993 | Open Access Book | Creative Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Author Notes
Jay Brandon is an attorney and author. He was born in Texas in 1953. Brandon received a master's degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University.
Brandon has served with the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Baxter County District Attorney's Office, and the San Antonio Court of Appeals during his legal career. He practices law in San Antonio, Texas.
Brandon's novel, Loose Among the Lambs, was a main selection of the Literary Guild. Another novel, Fade the Heat, was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel of the Year. Booklist magazine gave his novel, Deadbolt, an Editor's Choice award. An article he wrote about the judicial races in San Antonio won a Gavel Award from the State Bar Association in 1994.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews 2
Publisher's Weekly Review
Just as cops break the rules to fight crime in the streets, lawyers may disregard them completely in their search for truth in the courtroom--and feel pious about doing it. Raymond Boudro, the foremost black defense attorney in San Antonio, Tex., champions this dubious approach in Brandon's ( Fade the Heat ) fifth novel of legal suspense. When Detective Mike Stennett, a rough white undercover narc and reputed racist, is arrested for the fatal beating of a black junkie, Raymond takes on the high-profile case and upends many of his professional beliefs in his quest to make certain his client's innocence. Although the novel is suspenseful and savvy in its portrayal of subtle legal strategies in and out of the courtroom, its credibility sours when that subtlety is abandoned. For example, during the trial, to facilitate his search for the facts, Raymond discards the procedural rules, melodramatically offering prosecutor Becky Schirhart a free hand: ``There are no rules . . . . Only games have rules.'' Brandon develops an interesting contrast between Stennett, the unsavory but devoted cop, and Raymond, the skillful and competitive attorney; each considers himself rightful protector of the crime-ridden East Side where both grew up. But the plot hinges on Raymond's unconvincing transformation from wily professional to quixotic truth-seeker, so that the improbable ending cannot help but disappoint. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
/*STARRED REVIEW*/ Mike Stennet is a grungy undercover cop who works the predominantly black and Latino sections of San Antonio, Texas. His arrests are often brutal and tend to be made on black suspects. He's a career cop, dedicated to the job, with little chance of promotion, no partner, and few friends inside or outside the force. When he is suspended with pay after the beating death of a black derelict, Stennet chooses Boudro, a black lawyer, to represent him. Boudro has tangled with Stennet before, and he's not inclined to trust him much. But the case evolves in strange ways. The gun found at the scene of the crime has Stennet's fingerprints but wasn't actually fired. An obvious frame? Then a second witness turns up. And gradually a revised picture of Stennet emerges, at odds with the racist one but supported by reliable sources with no reason to trust the pragmatic cop--like Boudro's shopkeeper father. Brandon's last, Fade the Heat, nudged the Texas author into the big leagues. Evidence will surely keep him there. The courtroom lore begs comparison with Scott Turow, but Brandon's vision is decidedly more down-market: Boudro has to wade through the city's nether regions for the truth. As with Fade the Heat , the courtroom scenes and points of law crackle with authenticity. Lonely days and nights in urban hell, southern version, make Rules of Evidence Jay Brandon's best yet. (Reviewed Jan. 1, 1992)0671731742Peter Robertson
