A Criminal Defense is the first in a series of legal thrillers by William L. Myers, Jr. The story opens on a busy day in lawyer Mick McFarland’s life. He is messaged a few times by a reporter, who is afraid she will be pressured to release her sources by the D. A. and the grand jury. When she is murdered, the police catch David Hanson running from her house. Hanson is a friend of Mick’s going back to college days and asks Mick to defend him. The police and D.A. think it’s an open-and-shut case even though the victim died hours before the police were called. After all, the caught Hanson cleaning up the scene until they arrived and then fleeing. It becomes even easier when they discover a motive.

A Criminal Defense is fascinating. Mick is determined to get his friend off, even after more and more is learned about the reporter. He struggles to build reasonable doubt out of questioning who called the police alleging noises and the sound of throwing things when she was dead and Hanson was quietly cleaning. He implies the murder may have something to do with the grand jury that called her to testify about who leaked information about an investigation into dirty cops. He uses every trick in the book, determined to win because he feels losing this case would be catastrophic.

And wow, wow, wow, he throws a mean curveball you won’t see coming. I promise.

A Criminal Defense at Thomas & Mercer | Brilliance Publishing
William L. Myers, Jr. law firm

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Great suspense. Tricky plot. ( )

Not bad at all. Starts out and does continue with some horrible clichés, but the story is pretty good. ( )

well written but lacks suspense thus making the read long and tedious. A great book but misses the mark ( )

Good story with lots of twists. Was surprised with one twist near the end but then something else happened that bumped it down to a 3 for me. Just seemed a little unrealistic. Still a good read though. I enjoyed it. ( )