Law and Vengeance

by Mike Papantonio

SelectBooks     2017

336 pages     Legal Thriller

The author, Neil Gaiman, was quoted as saying, "I like stories where women save themselves." This is definitely the case with Gina Romano, the lawyer at the center of Law and Vengeance by attorney and radio host, Mike Papantonio. Like his previous book, Law and Disorder, Papantonio has created a thriller based on a real court case. Gina practically rises from the dead to avenge the murder of her lawyer friend, Angus Moore, who has saved her life.

Here is a summary of the book. 

Gina Romano is a highly successful trial lawyer with Bergman/Deketomis, a firm dedicated to protecting the public by exposing and penalizing corporate crooks and their allies in government. Well into her thirties, Gina hasn’t overcome the anger and defensiveness resulting from a bizarre and traumatic childhood. As she contemplates whether to marry solid, attractive and loyal veterinarian Bryan Penn or to send him packing, the murder of a friend and mentor, Angus Moore, turns her life into a quest for vengeance. In consort with partner Nick Deketomis, Gina runs headlong into a life and death struggle against weapons manufacturers, a gun rights lobbyist, psychopathic Chicago police, a hi-tech genius assassin, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Still, the most formidable and dangerous enemy she faces is herself.

The scene is set in the prologue with two seemingly unrelated events. A police officer named Kim Knudsen accidentally kills her partner while trying to arrest some gangbangers. Half a world away, soldier Cary Jones tries to keep Afghan terrorists from killing a little boy he has grown fond of, but instead he kills the boy's grandfather. In both cases, there seems to have been something wrong with the gun. 

The lawyers from Law and Disorder reappear, but the spotlight is definitely on Gina. I liked Law and Vengeance better than Law and Disorder and felt that the characters were better defined, although the composition remains clunky and descriptions leave a lot to be desired. It feels like Papantonio realized that he needed to fill in some empty spaces. Some text describes 1500 thread-count sheets, Gina's relationship with To Kill a Mockingbird, and her boyfriend, Bryan, serenading her with "I dream of Gina with the Light Brown Hair" which causes Gina to compare that song with other more famous Stephen Foster songs. The reader wavers between "Oh, for heaven's sake" and Who cares!"  However, when it comes to the lawyers deposing clients, the text is right on point. This is Papantonio's strength, because this is what he knows best.

Here is an interview with the author, Mike Papantonio, in USA Today. Also, here is a review I appreciated from a lawyer, Harry Graff. He says that he found the novel to be strong from a legal perspective, but "struggling with plotting and characterization." 

Mike Papantonio website.