cover image MOTION TO KILL

MOTION TO KILL

Joel Goldman, . . Pinnacle, $6.99 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-7860-1447-7

Only a few months after Lou Mason joins the Kansas City law firm Sullivan & Christenson, the firm's rainmaker and senior partner, Richard Sullivan, turns up dead. At the same time, Lou learns that the attorney general suspects the firm and one of its top clients of fraudulent business dealings. As the newest partner and the one most removed from the scandal, Lou is asked by his old friend and partner, Scot Daniels, to ward off the feds, but he soon finds information that may incriminate Scot and another of the firm's partners. Meanwhile, Sheriff Kelly Holt, a "slap-on-the-cuffs dream come true" beauty who is curiously inept, suspects Mason of Sullivan's murder until someone tries to kill Mason. To prevent further attacks against his person, Mason hires his friend, PI Wilson Bluestone (Blues), to act as his bodyguard. With a hit man on Mason's tail and Blues and Holt providing backup, the action accelerates and the fight scenes multiply. First-time author Goldman does an admirable job of maintaining the novel's high tension, but his apparent contempt for his characters, and for corporate lawyers in general, will distance readers from his protagonists. Nevertheless, Goldman's secondary characters—particularly Blues and a twisted hit man—add flavor to this mediocre thriller, and a series of fierce action scenes carry the reader toward an electrifying denouement. (Feb.)