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Defense attorney Paul Madriani gets caught in a web of deceit and murder involving Cold War secrets, a rare coin dealer who once worked for the CIA, and a furious assassin in one of the most entertaining novels yet in this New York Times bestselling series.
A woman pauses in the hallway of a darkened San Diego beach house at night—listening for just the right moment when she can flee before her companion notices that she's gone.
A man outside watches the same mansion, waiting for a sign that he can enter on his mission of blood and carnage.
So begins this riveting new tale about Paul Madriani and his latest case—that of Katia, a woman accused of an unlikely crime—a trial that will unravel a careful but horrifying conspiracy. Madriani soon realizes that he's signed onto something much more sinister than a botched heist. As he searches for the truth that will clear Katia's name, he finds himself on a path that takes him from Southern California to Costa Rica, and, ultimately, to a secret buried since Castro's rise to power.
Together with his partner, Harry Hinds, Madriani must piece together the threads of a decades-old conspiracy involving priceless gold coins, an aging American spy, a disaffected Russian soldier, and a forgotten weapon from the days of JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis. As the separate strands of the story come together, Madriani finds information that will ultimately lead him to the one person who holds the key to it all: a man some call "The Guardian of Lies."
In this fascinating thriller from New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini, Paul Madriani faces his most challenging—and most urgent—case yet, a breathless story that combines fact and fiction and will hold readers captive until its final, explosive conclusion.
Paul Madriani's chance encounter with 26-year-old Katia Solaz, a Costa Rican beauty, leads to a desperate race to avoid not only personal disaster but also a national one in Martini's sprawling 10th thriller to feature the Southern California defense attorney (after Shadow of Power). Katia, who's living with creepy Emerson Pike, a man old enough to be her grandfather, in a dilapidated estate surrounded by an expensive security fence, decides to return home to Costa Rica. In her flight, she just misses running into the legendary assassin known as the Mexecutioner, who sneaks into Pike's house. The naïve Katia and well-meaning Madriani, who meet in a grocery store, provide a welcome human element amid the busy action involving escaped Guantánamo prisoners, a Colombian rebel base, a Mexican drug cartel and a plot to bring the war home to the Great Satan via a nuclear device. Tidbits like how the FBI can use cellphones as remote bugging devices add to the fun. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Steve Martini is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including The Rule of Nine, Guardian of Lies, Shadow of Power, and others featuring defense attorney Paul Madriani. Martini has practiced law in California in both state and federal courts, and has served as an administrative law judge and supervising hearing officer. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Martini began his writing career as a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a legal newspaper, where he covered the California statehouse in the early 1970s. He specifically went to work for a legal publication because he planned to practice law. And, after receiving his law degree from the University of the Pacific in northern California, he set aside his reporter's notebook for private practice.
On the side, he continued to write, and he published his first novel, The Simeon Chamber in 1988, in which an attorney and his client are endangered by their possession of what may be the diaries of Sir Francis Drake and are in a chase that takes them to San Simeon, the castle-style estate in California built by William Randolph Hearst.
In 1992, Martini published his second book, Compelling Evidence, a taut thriller that introduced his popular recurring character, attorney Paul Madriani. In the novel, Madriani defends his former mistress on charges that she murdered her husband, the man who just happened to be the senior partner at Madriani's law firm. A national bestseller, the novel won the author a critical and popular following. Since then, with few exceptions, Madriani has been the centerpiece of Martini's fiction, squaring off against slick politicians, politically ambitious prosecutors, and a compelling cast of flawed clients with agendas all their own.
Although Martini is now a full-time writer, his long tenure in the legal trenches has obviously left its mark. Nowhere do his legal thrillers ring more true than in the courtroom scenes, which have won the praise of the master himself, fellow attorney-turned-bestselling novelist John Grisham. In assessing his colleague's skills, Grisham has said: "Steve Martini is a master of the genre...He writes with the agile, episodic style of a lawyer quick on his feet and one step ahead of his many enemies."
jocro
Posted May 22, 2010
One of Martini's Best!!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 21, 2010
The ebook should cost less than the paperback version.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Jude102
Posted January 29, 2010
As previous reviewers have noted, this is less legal thriller and more international spy novel. I missed the courtroom, but even more so, the Madriani and Hinds character development. In previous novels, Martini displayed a terrific ability in developing those characters. They grew and the reader came to know them better with each new book. But, that comes to a halt with "Guardian of Lies." It's as if they were extras in an otherwise ordinary book.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 6, 2009
JUST OK
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.It starts out with what could of been a good courtroom drama but from there it's get overly involved with too many characters & too many sub plots. Chapters actually break up so the sub plots can be tossed at you. By mid way through I was wondering why I was continuing to read & felt like it just needed to come to a conclusion. Sadly it drags on & on till your begging for the end but overall it's a weak effort...
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 6, 2009
This legal thriller includes espionage in Costa Rica, Cuba and Mexico.
Martini has a strong legal background and his books are well-researched and legally sophisticated. There is enough truth in this book to make you wonder if it might really happen. It is also a wonderful summer read.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.If there were a cash for clunkers program for books, I'd be turning this one in right away. Clunky describes the plot, which takes us all over Southern California, Costa Rica, Columbia, and Northern Mexico. There is a collection of bad guys who in no reasonable world would have ever teamed up together. The main characters are so thinly drawn that one cannot root for a single one of them. What starts as a courtroom drama ends up on the high seas with a Russian leftover from the cold war holding the keys to a nuclear bomb. Somehow an Arab terrorist gets together with a Mexican hitman and various cartel members to get this bomb up to the US border. Trailing along in the back of a U-Haul is our lawyer from San Diego. It seems that the federal government is too inept to discover this plot, leaving a motley crew to save us all. Frankly, I would rather have been blown up than suffer through much more of this.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Twenty-six years old Costa Rican expatriate Katia Solaz lives with elderly disturbing Emerson Pike on an estate that is horrifically run down except for a high priced security fence. However, she has had enough of the States and decides to go home.-------
She leaves Pike's estate heading for the airport. Unbeknownst to her, just after she left, infamous assassin the Mexecutioner breaches Pike's security entering the house to kill any occupants. At about the same time Katia meets Southern California defense attorney Paul Madriani at a grocer. Soon all hell breaks loose as several outlawed groups plans to bring nukes into the United States.-----------
The latest Madriani thriller (see DOUBLE TAP and SHADOW OF POWER) is an over the top of Costa Rica's Mount Chirripo thriller that will still grip the reader even before the heroic attorney meets the Central American expatriate. The contrast between the couple is enlightening as he is a cynic seeing the evil people do while she is an innocent trusting those same people. Insight into the electronic age of wiretapping and surveillance enhances the action-packed story line as several groups and the Mexecutioner converge on Katia with Paul as her only protection.------------
Harriet Klausner
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I enjoyed the story, though I found nothing more than a TV drama.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.BentleyCA
Posted July 8, 2010
Ridiculously huge holes in plot ruin what would only have been an ok read, providing you got the book for free and were looking to kill time. Way too contrived and far-fetched to be plausible. Steve would be better off sticking to courtroom drama.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Rouvi
Posted January 9, 2010
I Also Recommend:
Guardian of Lies is more thriller than legal thriller, but worth reading. I prefer Steve Martini's previous novels which showcase more trial/courtroom drama. This book is more like a spy novel.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.frog1901
Posted December 8, 2009
I Also Recommend:
I got this book as an e-book and enjoyed it very much. I have read most of Mr Martini's novels and this is the latest and the one I enjoyed most. He has written this novel in a well researched and a very believable fiction novel, based on a subject that took place during the 60's Cuban Crices.
I would highly recommend this novel for anyone that likes suspenseful novels.
ncgsys
Posted December 4, 2009
This is not a bad read per se. But It's sort of a rehash of The Simeon Chamber, One of Mr. Martini's earliest books, with a different cast of charachters. Which is what I wish he had done this time.
Madriani and Harry Hinds are all about preparing and presenting courtroom drama. Not only does this story move away from that, but might make it hard to put them back in the courtroom again. That would be a shame.
Also, I felt that some of the situations came together a little too handily (is that a word?).
UNIONBEACHBUM
Posted November 11, 2009
I Also Recommend:
This is Steve Martini,a great fiction writer,
at his best. I've read all the Paul Madriani series
and enjoyed them but this was really a great novel,
probably his best. It is entertaining and believable
and will make you think about the past and the future.
Well worth the cost of a hard cover book.
4cille
Posted September 12, 2009
I Also Recommend:
Martini is always a good read. His books are well written and interesting. I care about his characters. I'm always happy to pass one of Martini's books to my friends - and snap them up as soon as they hit the store. This story was a little slower a read for me than usual, but I liked it anyway.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 8, 2009
Martini writes the best courtroom dialogue in the business. He writes "thrillers" that are a bit too "global" for my tastes and which are simply ordinary. Guardian of Lies was a thriller; I was disappointed, because I was expecting and hoping for a courtroom drama.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.southernladyLP
Posted September 5, 2009
Very good story but the story twists and it is sometimes hard to just pick up and read with out reflecting back. I enjoy this writer and I thought the book was very enjoyable.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 5, 2009
I usually can't wait to read anything by Steve Martini. Not so much this time. I found the plot unbelievable and at times, plodding along.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Babbi
Posted September 1, 2009
Mr Martini weans away Paul Madriani from his comfort zone in this novel and the much anticipated courtroom theatrics that his books are famous for are dearly missed, thereby making Paul a mere shadow of his self. The book would have made a greater impact on the reader had the details contained in the author's note been more intricately woven into the book itself.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 25, 2009
Martini attempts to write a terrorist thriller using Madriani as a Robert Ludlum character. Unfortuneatly the story is uninteresting and too detailed. I kept reading the book out of respect for Martini but after 350 pages when I saw that this book did not end in a trial i threw it in the garbage. Attention to detail is interesting in a legal thriller but boring in an action novel. Martini should stick to what he knows.
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Overview
Defense attorney Paul Madriani gets caught in a web of deceit and murder involving Cold War secrets, a rare coin dealer who once worked for the CIA, and a furious assassin in one of the most entertaining novels yet in this New York Times bestselling series.
A woman pauses in the hallway of a darkened San Diego beach house at night—listening for just the right moment when she can flee before her companion notices that she's gone.
A man outside watches the same mansion, ...