"A Los Angeles lawyer defends a professional safecracker accused of murder in Rucker's debut legal thriller.... Earl's a shrewd, worthy protagonist, surrounded by exceptional characters, including reliable investigator Manny Munoz and second-chair district attorney Samantha Price. This novel certainly doesn't skimp on twisty plot turns, but retains an understated, authentic approach to the law." - Kirkus Reviews "An absolutely smashing first novel. Simply what the best legal thrillers have been all along. Rucker's debut delivers the same intelligent and compassionate punch as those first memorable novels of Grisham and Turow. The Inevitable Witness will appeal to readers who like old-fashioned storytelling mixed with modern courtroom drama. A powerful tale written by a man who knows what it is like to stand before a death-penalty jury - a tale driven by characters you care about and believe in. As I read the book, something in Rucker's style reminded me of the great books of Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanly Gardner...thoughtfully constructed suspense where murder is an element in a sophisticated thriller...not a blood-soaked rampage." - Thomas Eidson, author of St. Agnes' Stand and The Missing (Random House) "Veteran defense attorney Ed Rucker knows the realities of the darker side of his profession and has transformed this experience into a gripping work of fiction which is as detailed as the notes on his yellow legal pads and as harrowing and absorbing as the work of the best of today's L.A. Noir masters. If I ever got in a jam, I'd want Rucker's lawyer-hero, smart and dedicated Bobby Earl, standing for my defense." - Jon Wilkman, author of Floodpath (Bloomsbury Press) "Ed Rucker takes us inside the mind of those who practice the law, those who enforce it and those who cannot help themselves but to bend and break it." - Richard Lourie, author of Hunting the Devil (Harper Collins) "Edward Rucker's compelling novel manages to be both wonderfully entertaining and intellectually satisfying. The Inevitable Witness delights with a cast of off-beat characters, a richly-evoked L.A. setting, flashes of wit, an insider's critique of 'the system, ' and plenty of plot twists and surprises." - Elisabeth Gitter, Author of The Imprisoned Guest (Picador), and John Jay College of Criminal Justice crime expert "I downed the book in two sittings, the pages flew by, and I was sorry to have to leave Bobby Earl to his next adventure. Tightly plotted, no strains on belief, and lots of 'Wow, I didn't know that.' What if a policeman got shot? And you were charged with the crime? And the DA wants the death penalty? And in fact you didn't do it? I would recommend two things: read this book, then find an attorney as good as Bobby Earl, the crafty, witty and insightful lawyer who is the star of The Inevitable Witness. You couldn't be in better hands, and you can't read a better book." - Steve Greenleaf, author of The Tanner Detective series
2016-10-24
A Los Angeles lawyer defends a professional safecracker accused of murder in Rucker's debut legal thriller. Criminal defense attorney Bobby Earl gladly takes a case when the public defender is unavailable, especially after a judge assures him that he'll be paid. Sydney Seabrooke is facing a murder charge, and evidence points to his presence at a Chinese restaurant where the body of LA cop Terry Horgan was found. Seabrooke professes his innocence, but the fact that he was at the scene of the crime in order to break into a safe doesn't look good. But Earl is inclined to believe Seabrooke, who says he was pulling the job for bondsman Johnny Aradano in exchange for bail for an earlier, unrelated arrest. It also turns out that Horgan wasn't an upstanding officer; although the cop didn't own the restaurant, he did own the safe inside it, and Earl suspects that its contents—bulky stacks of cash—may have been the spoils of Horgan's involvement with drug dealers. Before the trial begins, there's a break-in at Earl's office, and jailhouse snitch Jake "The Snake" Snyder claims that Seabrooke confessed to the murder. The attorney's investigation into the seedy world of drugs provokes some dangerous people, but he still hopes to find a witness for the defense—or maybe even a killer. Rucker's muted thriller steers clear of convention; there's no glaring piece of evidence, for example, that guarantees that Earl will save his client. The story acknowledges its realism with humor, including nods to the TV series Law & Order ("most young women DA's had chosen to emulate the female television prosecutors on ‘Law and Order,' which meant exuding a toughness just short of announcing ‘mine are bigger than yours' "). Earl faces some other hurdles before and during the trial: he unintentionally irks television personality Thomas Glass (aka "The Thumb," who has a knack for tipping scales of opinion one way or the other), and someone else threatens and takes a few shots at the lawyer. Overall, Earl's a shrewd, worthy protagonist, surrounded by exceptional characters, including reliable investigator Manny Munoz and second-chair district attorney Samantha Price. This novel certainly doesn't skimp on twisty plot turns, but retains an understated, authentic approach to the law.
