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I struggled with this book. Goldman is a new author for me and I'm always looking for good legal dramas to read but I just never quite got into a groove with DEADLOCKED. I shoulda known -- metallic covers are a dead giveaway when it comes to legal thriller books. Some of my problem was some reference to earlier books/stories where attorney Lou Mason appeared; this is often going to happen in a series, but it never felt smoothly done, it always popped up in the middle of a 'now' part of the story and was awkward for me. I also had a really hard time buying Mason's motivation for taking on a case. Here's the set-up; a man, Ryan Kowalczyk is put to death in prison, swearing to the last that he did not murder a couple in their car. While he was convicted, the other person with him was found not guilty. This is a puzzle and one I wanted to understand. Mason is approached first by Kowalczyk's mother, who wants him to prove her son was not in fact guilty of the crimes. Then that same day, Nick Byrnes, the couple's son who was an infant in the back seat of the car at the time of the crime, wants Mason to find a way to bring the second person to justice, believing at least that a civil case against him could prove his complicity. One problem I had here was the trite "I got away with murder" rich guy scenario. It should intrigue me; as an undergrad and grad student, I studied the death penalty years ago, and as a fan of legal dramas and legal fiction, I like lawyer stories and courtroom cases (although no one measures up for me to Turow at his best). And while Turow recently took on a similar story, there's plenty going on in DEADLOCKED; it's not an imitation of REVERSIBLE ERRORS (in fact that book didn't come to mind until I began writing this review). Mrs Kowalczyk is unconvincing, although not to Mason. She believes because she believes because she does; she didn't raise her son to commit cold-blooded murder. Of course she didn't; very few people could imagine that anyone does. But would a lawyer take on a client like this? Her son is dead; he cannot be brought back to be released, even if she thinks she can get a posthumous pardon for him. He seems like an unlikely killer -- the crime had little motive, both young men (they were kids at the time) arrested had no records, no background indicating violence, nothing. But while Mason finds Mrs K to be compelling, I found her dull and without any passion and if you're going to dig into trial error, court cases and the inevitable appeals that follow any death penalty case, which is usually scrutinized (this is modern day, after all, not historical) you know that other people before you have looked. And while there's a rather intriguing side story, it's so slow in coming that the only reason I knew about it before page 100 is minor hints and the back cover blurb. The book is 400 pages long, but the pacing was off for me. I don't tend to read jacket copy, but did this time since I had no idea what the book was about when I picked it up. I did very much want to know who actually committed the murders but was unable to sustain my interest in the book. There was both not enough going on and too much - shootings, tornadoes . . . Maybe I like my legal thrillers a little more legal and a little less thrillery but there was so much action, with all this and I wanted to know more of the legal story, which I found interesting enough on its own. DEADLOCKED is likely to appeal more to readers of the earlier books by Goldman, I would imagine, because they know the players. I wasn't all that interested in the players. They just never quite came alive for me.
Reviewed by Andi Shechter, December 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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