Product Description

In Sean Drummond's fourth outing, the wisecracking, bull-in-a-china-shop JAG lawyer gets loaned out to a white-shoe law firm whose #1 client, a telecom giant, may be vacuuming up intelligence for a foreign power.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #350127 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 6.88" h x 1.25" w x 4.25" l, .55 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 528 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Haig's wisecracking J.A.G. attorney Sean Drummond returns for his fourth caper in three years (after January 2003's The Kingmaker). Unpopular with his military superiors because of his sharp tongue and his tendency to attract trouble, Major Drummond finds himself loaned out to a private law firm. Culper, Hutch, and Westin represents some of the District of Columbia's most staid, old-line institutions, and Drummond begins ruffling feathers from the moment he arrives, though he does prove surprisingly popular with some clients. Meanwhile, a serial killer is taking out attractive young professional women. The first victim is Lisa Morrow, Drummond's sidekick in Haig's debut thriller, Secret Sanction, and also a military lawyer working for Culper, Hutch, and Westin. In fact, Lisa's on her way to meet Drummond when she's murdered. Chapters from the obsessive killer's dark perspective alternate with Drummond's cheeky first-person narration. Not happy with police progress on the case, Lisa's sister Janet, also a lawyer and a dark-haired beauty, steps forward to help Drummond investigate, even as victims pile up. Both Janet and Drummond prove to be entertaining thorns in the side of crusty police detective Spinelli, the officer in charge of the murder investigation. Haig introduces related subplots featuring corporate greed and criminality, but they don't have the visceral chills or the sexiness of the serial killer story line. In the end, it's all about Drummond; though the novel is overlong, the hero's sharp and devilish style should keep reader interest high until the surprising conclusion.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Brian Haig, usually a master of the mystery novel, stumbles with his execution of this rambling story. A young Army JAG officer is sent to a prestigious Washington, D.C, law firm to broaden his horizons from criminal law to corporate law. His first day on the job convinces him that lazy civilians have little to offer him. When a colleague is murdered, he sets out to find the killer--against the wishes of almost everyone. Reader John Rubenstein does the best he can with the one-dimensional characters he attempts to bring to life but ends up disappointing readers almost as much as the story's flat, abrupt ending. Only Michael Emerson's voicing of the thoughts of the killer is eerily engaging, but it's too little too late. J.L.C. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Maverick JAG officer Sean Drummond finds himself temporarily assigned to a private D.C. firm as part of an officer-borrowing program. He wants nothing to do with the uptight world of corporate law but figures all he has to do is be himself, and he'll be kicked out on his ass within two weeks. He does his best to meet his deadline but winds up assigned to a case involving a Microsoft-like corporation that is trying to land a multibillion-dollar contract with the Department of Defense. Things aren't all suits and cigars, though, when Drummond's predecessor turns up dead. Could her murder be connected to the case that is now in his lap? Smart-talking, no-B.S.-taking Drummond is the perfect hero for the bureaucracy-laden D.C. law scene. In his previous Drummond novels, Haig proved he could compete on the espionage front with the likes of Ken Follett; with this outing, he matches David Baldacci for Beltway intrigue. Mary Frances Wilkens
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