cover image Reckless Homicide

Reckless Homicide

IRA Genberg. St. Martin's Press, $23.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-312-17974-8

Genberg builds plenty of tension in his thriller about a lawyer who is held responsible for a plane crash, but a melodramatic beginning and a belly-flop finale combine to spoil his debut. New York attorney Michael Ashmore finds himself charged with reckless homicide after he allows his brother Charlie to fly to Washington. The problem is that Charlie is a recovering barbiturate addict recently fired by an airline that Michael's firm represents. After Charlie's plane crashes, killing Charlie and more than 100 passengers, Michael races to protect his client from a class action suit on the victims' behalf. But when a crusading DA charges Michael himself with responsibility for the accident, he's forced to turn to Diane Wells, his lover and fellow lawyer, to save him from prison. At first, the case against him looks weak. But once Michael is betrayed by his own firm, his efforts to exonerate himself and his dead brother grow increasingly desperate. Genberg's talent for crisp dialogue carries the first-rate trial scenes, and Michael is an engaging (if occasionally whiny) protagonist. The plot stalls when Genberg artificially raises the stakes before the trial: the sudden developments that save Michael are underwhelming, and send Genberg's first novel into a tailspin of its own. (Jan.)