Laurance L. Priddy

Critical Evidence Laurance L. Priddy

When a tanker truck crashes and explodes, down-at-the-heels lawyer Jim McSpadden hopes to represent some of the victims, but big-time attorney Rolly Sullivan gets to them first. The only client Jim can muster is Laura, widow of Danny Marcus, the truck driver whose drunken driving allegedly caused the accident. As Jim struggles to prove that a defect in the truck steering made Danny lose control, trial tactics lock Jim and Rolly in an unwelcome relationship: if one wins, the other loses, yet they must cooperate on common problems of proof. Jim's accumulation of evidence through industrial espionage provokes a violent response, escalating the game to a lethal level. Now, it's not just a matter of win or lose. His life is part of the stakes. ''With high-energy courtroom scenes and plenty of cunning legal manipulations, Priddy shows that you don't have to be a high-profile author (Grisham, Turow, et al) to write a high-quality legal thriller.'' --BOOKLIST ***