Publisher's Weekly Review
Ringing dazzling changes on the suspense format he worked so successfully in Sharkey's Machine and four other thrillers, Diehl here focuses on the maneuvers of Chicago defense attorney Martin Vail, a prosecutor's worst nightmare. Vail has vexed the political machine by winning a multimillion-dollar brutality judgment against the city, county and state police, but the powers that be think they see a way to pay him back. After discovering the mutilated body of Archbishop Richard Rushman in the rectory of his church, police find Aaron Stampler cowering in a confessional, blood-soaked and gripping the murder weapon. It seems like an ironclad case--psycho slasher carves up ``the Saint of Lakeview Drive''--and a hostile judge appoints Vail as pro bono defense attorney, hoping to publicly humble him. Vail is impressed by Stampler, a runaway from the bishop's haven, Savior House, and builds a maverick defense team to butt heads with vengeful prosecutor Jane Venable. PI Tommy Goodman digs up some nasty news about the bishop (not what the reader expects) and uncovers a childhood of abuse and mysterious deaths in Stampler's Kentucky hometown. Psychiatrist Molly Arrington blows the case wide open by unearthing a terrifying secret that Vail springs in court. Diehl builds delicious tension, keeping the reader off balance right up to the gavel-pounding finale. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo; movie rights to Paramount; Literary Guild special featured selection. ( Jan. ) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Though Diehl never breaks new thriller-ground, he generally does a fine job of hoeing others' rows--from the cop-novel Sharky's Machine (1978) through the mob novel Hooligans (1984) and the Nazi- conspiracy novel 27 (1990). Here, in his strongest yarn in years, Diehl jumps on the legal-thriller bandwagon, with a nod to psychothrillers as well. Martin Vail is Chicago's hottest attorney, a prickly Wunderkind who's just won a $7.6 million lawsuit filed by a mobster against the county, city, and state. Area powerbrokers take vengeance by sticking Vail with the pro bono defense of angelic- looking Aaron Stampler, 19, found holding a bloody knife near the room where Chicago's ``saint'' of a bishop has been sliced into chopped meat. The case against Aaron looks airtight, especially with Vail's nemesis, high-powered Jane Venable (``She was just like Vail--no prisoners'') prosecuting. With his trusty team of assistants--Naomi, the beautiful black paralegal; the Judge, retired, who gives Vail bench-advice; boxer-turned-law-student Tommy Goodman--Vail works furiously on a defense, checking Aaron's background by sending Goodman to the boy's Kentucky hometown (where Goodman sleeps with Aaron's high-school teacher and learns that she'd slept often with Aaron). The first plot bombshell goes off when Goodman digs up a videotape of the bishop romping naked with four kids, including Aaron. The second goes off when the psychiatrist hired by Vail (who beds her) to question Aaron learns to her peril that Aaron suffers from a shocking mental disorder. And so the story goes, tick-tocking along, with clever, challenging courtroom scenes filling it out until the verdict arrives--and, with it, one last bombshell. A big, efficient thriller-machine--slick and melodramatic-- with every cog whirring at top speed but with little élan vital. It'll make a great movie, though. (Film rights to Paramount)
Booklist Review
"Archbishop Rushman Murdered!" scream the headlines of the Chicago newspapers. Taking the best elements of horror fiction, the psychological thriller, and the legal novel, best-selling author Diehl concocts an especially exciting chiller, to which movie rights have already been sold to Paramount. If the scriptwriters stick to the book, they should have a greatly successful movie on their hands, for Diehl weaves a plot of bloodletting and courtroom drama that leaves the reader in a cold sweat. Defending the accused murderer of the respected Chicago archbishop is a task forced into the lap of controversial attorney Martin Vail. Vail's personal investigation into the case leads him and the reader into a story distasteful in the extreme--but eminently page-turning. The ending may not hold up under a psychiatrist's professional scrutiny, but the general reader will find it an immensely successful finis! (Reviewed Dec. 1, 1992)067940211XBrad Hooper