Mitzner Mints Golden Legal Thriller

"A Conflict of Interest" by Adam Mitzner
Reviewed by David Marshall James

This first novel by New York attorney Adam Mitzner-- surprise, it's a legal thriller-- fresh out in paperback, was published in hardcover this past year.

In this new format, the book will be easier to place on your nightstand, to slip into your your tote, and to otherwise tote it wherever you're headed this summer, because you should definitely place it on your "summer reads" list, especially since you can pass it around the family, or to your significant other.

For the plot is tied into marriages and the tests that wedded unions endure from extramarital temptations.

Those marriages would be that of the protagonist, Alex Miller-- just turned 35 and a litigation partner at an uppity-up New York City law firm-- and that of his parents.

At the novel's outset, Alex's father has died unexpectedly. At the funeral, in Palm Beach, Florida, Alex meets a man who has loomed large in his parents' lives, beginning at their introduction.

However, Alex has only heard about Michael Ohlig; he has never come face-to-face with this fabled shadow over his parents' marriage.

Michael happens to be a friend in need-- of a good attorney.

The Feds are up in his business, because it reeks of SEC violations.

Boy, is Ohlig gonna need Alex.

From this premise, Mitzner mints a golden legal thriller, with plenty of courtroom drama and insider information on the methodologies of attorneys of multiple stripes, including prosecutors and defenders, in federal and district courts.

The author ultimately carries out two trials, and the reader's palms are sure to perspire when the jury foreman delivers a verdict to the judge in each instance.

Erle Stanley Gardner would be pleased.

In case that reference is too remote-- this is as good as Grisham.