Measuring Lives: A Thiller - Hardcover

In this Grishamesque legal procedural set in sunny, nouveau riche Naples, Florida, paranoid but good-looking former Miami Beach prosecutor John Geddy, who made a name for himself prosecuting serial killers, can't seem to leave criminal law behind. Credit former lawyer Foley with finding an arcane (if compelling) bit of legalese as an excuse to set the plot in motion. It seems that estate law requires that the duration of some trust funds be pegged to the lifespan of existing human beings. A trust fund must self-destruct 21 years after the last of the so-called ``measuring lives'' die. It's no wonder that Foley's lights-on- nobody's-home lawyer hero, now awkwardly in private practice with a white-shoe law firm, ties Naples' notorious ``new moon slasher'' murders, which occurred nearly 21 years ago, to the coming dissolution of the $30 million Gentry family trust fund. Geddy is hired by flaky, fabulously face-lifted Cynthia Dole, one of the trust's beneficiaries, to make sure she gets what's coming to her. Lurking in the background is another beneficiary, decadent, spendthrift Curtis Dole, who just might have had a motive to murder those ``measuring lives'' two decades ago. Geddy, and his hardworking associate lawyer, Faith Williams, hire Nick Farley, a sleazy freelance journalist and specialist in serial killers, to get the goods on Curtis. During the inevitable courtroom confrontation, which is as predictable here as the tortured twists in plot, Gentry is able to brand Curtis a liar and murderer, thus succeeding in disqualifying him as a beneficiary. Flush with victory, Gentry discovers that there were more corpses and, possibly, more serial killers involved than he thought. Newcomer Foley's bilious loathing of the tasteless rich and his climactic series of hokey, gratuitous James Bondish chases in (of all places) the Swiss Alps doesn't save a tricked-up lawyer fantasy that, while no worse than generic Grisham, is no better. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

An abundance of plot twists, legal and personal secrets suddenly revealed, characters lying their heads off and dead bodies saves this first novel, though just barely, from its amateurish writing. Miami prosecutor John Geddy wins a conviction of a serial killer (the "South Beach Butcher") but is forced out of the DA's office for personal reasons and handed a top job with a prestigious Naples, Fla., law firm. Geddy's new celebrity lands him socialite Cynthia Dole as a client; she's out to collect $40 million from a family trust fund. But the trust won't dissolve, releasing its moneys to the beneficiaries, until 21 years after the last survivor of a group called "Measuring Lives"?five women included in the trust as infants in 1952?dies. Geddy learns that all five were victims of the long-ago "New Moon Murders," and links Cynthia's brother, Curtis, to the crimes. In his quest to nail Curtis, Geddy receives help?and some loving attention?from the fund's trustee, beautiful Morgan Gentry, and from a freelance reporter who'd covered the past murders. A sensational civil trial sees Geddy prove that Curtis is the serial killer. Or does it? Experienced legal-thriller readers won't be surprised by the ensuing romantic, financial and legal corkscrewing, nor by the identity of the serial killer. Foley's plotting is lively enough, but his characters are familiar and his writing is often flat, odd or just plain silly (as when Geddy, upon learning that he can try Curtis in civil court, cries out, "I'm back in the murder business!").
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.