Joseph Antonelli is a defense attorney who has never lost a case. This is the story of about 15 years of his life and cases. He wins his cases but not without major challenges that test him severely. It's Buffa's first novel and I sure hope it isn't the last. The characters are fascinating. The start is good. The middle is a tad slow but when you get to the last third of the book, it's one of those you are totally sucked into. ( )

Excellent. Great story told in an interesting manner. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next in the series. Buffa is as charming as a writer as the characters he brings to life and he gives a lot of good detail without going overboard for the most part. My chief complaint was that I felt he really aged the lead character too much(and not in line with the other characters) and that resulted in a bit of disappointment with a crucial part of the ending. And I get that Antonelli must be a tall and lanky guy, but I just couldn't picture him as tossed about in his chairs as he always appeared to be. Maybe it was a deliberate flaw that Buffa tried to build into the character, but it only managed to make me mutter, more than once, 'Sit up straight!' ( )

3685. The Defense, by D. W. Buffa (read 23 Jan 2003) This is the author's first book, published in 1997. There were some unlikeable things about the central character, a defense lawyer, and about the story, but there were some good lawyers and judges (instead of most being bad, a la Grisham), the legal things were not oversimplified, and all in all I found this a compelling and intriguing story, extremely easy to read. ( )

There is none. ( )