Ted Stevens is a capable, respected trial attorney whose drinking problem and impending divorce have sent him on a downward slide. His appointment as defense counsel in a high-profile murder case seems to offer a chance at redemption. The opportunity, however, isn't without risks. The victim—a local newspaper reporter known for her loose lifestyle and her willingness to take risks to get a story—was not only a former client but Ted's secret lover as well. Ted must choose between concealing evidence that would be helpful to his client and revealing it, thereby becoming a suspect himself. Author Terry Lewis is a trial judge in Tallahassee, where he lives with his wife, Fran, and Bordoodle, Pepper. In spite of some corny dialogue and narrative, first-time novelist Lewis delivers an effective, often riveting legal thriller. Attorney Ted Stevens introduces himself as a man trying to cope with a pending divorce and a history of alcoholism. When assigned by the court to defend the convicted murderer of his one-time lover (and the source of his divorce), Ted is aware of the potential conflict but nonetheless accepts the case, figuring it might offer one way of working through his personal problems. Wrong. His problems only worsen when he starts getting anonymous phone calls from the real killer, who is threatening to divulge Ted's affair with the victim and, in so doing, make Ted a suspect. The real strength of this first novel lies in the relationship that develops between lawyer and client. The writer, a judge himself, sketches the unique alliance with candor and verisimilitude. A good, quick read for courtroom drama fans. Mary Frances Wilkens Lewis's first novel is a legal thriller in which most of the conflict is between a Florida trial lawyer and his own worst instincts. When the public defender's office refuses the case of Bobby Jackson because it represents a potential witness against him, the case falls into Ted Stevens's lap. He'll be getting paid a reduced rate, but he agrees to represent Jackson anyway--even though he not only represented the victim, reporter Patty Stiles, in her divorce action last year, but was also her lover (as was Bobby Jackson). Why doesn't Stevens--reasonably well-fixed and well-known, secure in his partnership, but immersed in the pain of his own divorce, which he suspects was provoked by jealous Patty--duck the assignment? The man seems to have zero survival instinct, as he demonstrates by a plunge into reckless drinking (endless hangovers, a DUI case that drags on and on, a scary blackout on the night of the murder) that throws the murder case he's defending into the shade. Oh, there's still the outrage when the prosecution loses some key evidence, the search for loopholes in the witnesses' stories, and the endless quest to find another suspect: Patty's shadowy ex, the drug dealers she may have been writing about for the Tallahassee Times-Union, their nameless higher-ups. And there's the obligatory spate of threatening anonymous phone calls. But the real story here isn't whether Stevens will do the right thing for a client who seems considerably more powerful than his attorney is, but whether he'll even be free to show up in court instead of locked up on the DUI charge. But if the hero's problems are so much more pressing than the criminal defense (readers looking for courtroom razzle-dazzle will walk away disappointed), Lewis does catch, better than most entries in this overcrowded genre, the way lawyers actually talk and act--especially when they've had too much to drink. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Florida circuit judge Terry Lewis devotes much of his spare time (when not writing and judging) to law-related education, both for active judges through the Florida Judicial College and for young people through programs like Teen Court and Mock Trial Competition. He is well known throughout the state in judicial circles.