Silent Counsel

Attorney Isaacson squanders a worthy look at the legal system's limits by hooking it to a by-the-numbers plot in his fiction debut. Vincent Saldano, a wealthy New Jersey resident, takes his new BMW out for a joyride in a quiet a residential area, where the car strikes and kills a young boy. Saldano flees the scene, but then contacts New York attorney Scott Heller. Heller agrees to keep Saldano's identity secret while he attempts to negotiate a plea deal. His commitment to attorney-client privilege gets put to the test when Stacy Altman, the boy's mother, becomes obsessed with forcing the attorney's hand, and Heller's own young child gets drawn into her scheme. The hit-and-run itself is forgettable, and Altman's increasingly irrational behavior is not conveyed plausibly, but Heller's conflict touches on real issues.