The Book: 4.5/5
Audiobook: 5/5

Eddie Flynn, con man/hustler/lawyer, can’t seem to stay away from trouble. This time he is coerced to defend David Child, a tech entrepreneur who is accused of brutally murdering his girlfriend, to protect his wife Christine, a lawyer employed with the prestigious law firm Harland and Sinton, from being framed for financial fraud. Christine unknowingly signed incriminating documents and law enforcement has zeroed in on her and she could take the fall for financial crimes being committed by her employers using the firm as a front. Unbeknownst to David, software developed by him for business purposes is being used for the firm’s illegal practices. David is the key to deciphering the encrypted data that could implicate those truly responsible and using Christine as leverage, a covert branch of law enforcement blackmails Eddie into representing David, hoping to negotiate a plea bargain for David in exchange for David’s cooperation in uncovering the money laundering operation. Eddie begins to doubt David’s guilt and that puts him at odds with those who would rather see David in jail or dead. With all evidence pointing to David being guilty, proving his innocence won't be easy and Eddie will have to rely on his street smarts and help from his friends from his previous life to save his client and his wife and survive the ordeal.

The Plea by Steve Cavanagh, the second book in the Eddie Flynn series, is another action-packed, twisty legal thriller that was hard to put down. With its fast-paced narrative, interesting characters and a fair share of OTT moments (I’m not complaining!)this was an entertaining read! Plus points for the fact that I could not predict the identity of the culprits and I was surprised more than once as the plot progressed. I paired my reading with the exceptional audio narration by Adam Sims. Overall, I enjoyed this one more than the first in the series and can’t wait to read the remaining books.

My Review for Book #1: The Defense ( )

Eddie Flynn, con man & defense attorney. Book#2 in this series is a dive right in & be entertained while trying to figure out who done it. this time Eddie is threatened by the CIA, FBI, & his wife's place workplace. Take a plea for murder for a young billionaire computer whiz who is most certainly guilty, or is he? Get him to plead & Eddie's wife will be off the hook for crimes she didn't know she committed. Full of rollicking fun, danger, courtroom drama, & the ultimate con. Eddie Flynn is my new hero attorney ( )

Steve Cavanagh continues the Eddie Flynn series with another winner. This is similar to the first, but perhaps more complex. The same general setup, where Eddie is coerced into taking a case to save someone he loves by people who obviously don't know him well enough to understand how he doesn't take to coercion very well, and does what he thinks is right. But this one started getting complicated toward the end, partly due to the number of characters and the fact that it was hard to keep up with who were the good guys or the bad guys, since they kept changing.

All in all, a pretty satisfying read, hard to put down, and good to know there are more books in the series, even though he did sort of die in the end - but fortunately, only temporarily. ( )

I picked this book up thinking it might be an entertaining diversion. It turned out to be entertaining enough.

The story begins like most all of this ilk do, that with an augury of a first chapter. This being the foregoing sandwiching of the tale — a not uncommon technique in today's writing dogma. From there it proceeds in a wham-bang style reminiscent of Ludlum, the premise of the story stretched out in excruciating detail, too often contrived. Also common in this ilk, the characters were paper cutouts with but a few fleshing out somewhat in the course of the story, and the bits of tells (and forebodings) dropped here and there so the reader will feel clever when they connect the dots. The conclusion was not surprising — hey I'm clever too :-))

There is obviously an audience for this escapism writing, but to me it wears thin after so many years of reading. Never the less, a little of this reading helps in contrasting. Not having found my next potentially 'great' read yet, it helped fill my time.

Yeah, I'm a jaded old fart on a down day ;-) ( )

The Plea is Steve Cavanagh’s second murder-mystery-legal-procedure novel featuring ex-conman turned lawyer Eddie Flynn. It lacks the legal realism of a Scott Turow novel, but it is pretty well crafted and fast paced. If you can suspend belief that any actual court would proceed as described by Cavanagh, you can enjoy the remarkably convoluted story about how a young tech billionaire, represented by Flynn, becomes enmeshed in a fantastic plot to steal about $8 billion (yes, that is billion with a B) in laundered money from the law firm representing a Mexican drug cartel. The government is hoping the client will accept a plea in exchange for more info about the planned heist.

Eddie Flynn, whose father was a professional conman, is more street-wise than legally competent. Nevertheless, he has just the kind of expertise to handle this particular case. Although the book is quite long for this genre (513 pages), the author keeps the twists coming and the action moving along at a pace that would try Dan Brown in the Vatican.

(JAB) ( )