cover image The Conviction

The Conviction

Robert Dugoni. S&S/Touchstone, $25 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4516-0672-0

Improbable and clichéd action sequences mar bestseller Dugoni’s fifth thriller featuring legendary Seattle attorney David Sloane, “the lawyer who does not lose” (after 2011’s Murder One). Sloane’s 16-year-old adopted son, Jake, has been on a downward spiral since witnessing his mother’s murder. When Jake is arrested a second time for public intoxication, Sloane manages to persuade the court not to incarcerate him, but the reprieve is brief. On a family trip to Truluck, Calif., Jake and a friend, T.J. Molia, are busted for breaking into a store. When an unethical judge forces Jake and T.J. to plead guilty before Sloane can intervene, they wind up, in peril of their lives, at a sadistic boot camp. While justice from the system is not an option, some readers may wonder why the well-connected Sloane makes no effort to contact elected officials either in Washington State or in California for help as he and T.J.’s father race the clock to save the boys. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (June)