The Alternate

Repeated references to the O.J. Simpson trial notwithstanding, Martel's latest legal thriller (after Partners) is an old-school melodrama. When a former beauty queen is stabbed to death with a shard of her own bathroom mirror, police rush to arrest husband Elliot Ashford, a wealthy, former right-wing congressman with suspected ties to the Mafia. Everyone assumes Ashford is ""dead-bang guilty""--including D.A. Earl Field, a politically ambitious African-American with mob connections of his own; his beautiful assistant, Grace Harris; even Ashford's own lawyer, ""Bear"" Dickson, a ""hard-luck, hard-drinking"" corporate attorney hired by the defense mainly for his friendship with the presiding judge. Predictably, defending the despicable Ashford gets Dickson's professional juices flowing again, and he even begins to entertain unprofessional fantasies about Assistant D.A. Harris. But the courses of justice and true love hit a snag when down-and-out Amanda Keller arrives as an alternate on the Ashford jury. A former child beauty-pageant queen and now a psychologically unstable soap opera actress between jobs, Keller is determined to grab the headlines, even by the most desperate measures. The plot twists strenuously as the characters cross and double-cross each other, spitting out venomous one-liners (""Isn't it a tight squeeze getting a cloven foot into those Ferragamos, Elliot?"") and self-righteous tirades about forensic and criminal ethics. Martel aims for psychological thrills and contemporary cool, mixing post-O.J. cynicism with potboiler morality. But his overlong yarn is replete with such stale characterization and predictable plot machinations that few will be surprised when the author tacks on a hackneyed deus ex machina happy ending. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selection. (May)