Proof by Jon Cowan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I had hoped and expected this to be a legal thriller. It’s not. There’s no courtroom cross-examination, no clever legal loopholes exploited. The main character, Jake West, is a crappy father, an alcoholic, a lousy husband (now ex), and violates all sorts of ethical lines as an attorney. He’s falsely accused of murdering his law partner and former best friend. I guess we’re supposed to root for him as he fights to clear his name. He goes after his firm’s biggest client (which happens to be his father’s firm, too), a property developer, who, of course under the rules of cliched plots, is corrupt. He does his fighting primarily through extortion. I found Jake barely better than the scummy people he goes after. The plot is so implausible it’s ridiculous, the characters are all stock stereotypes, and the book very disappointing overall. Cowan is no Grisham or Turow.