The Defence - Steve Canavagh

There are two ways you can approach Steve Canavagh's first novel featuring Eddie Flynn lawyer-extraordinaire. You can try to justify whether the whole set-up is credible, or you can try and figure out where it's possibly going to go. Canavagh makes the choice an easy one to make. From the first line, first page, you're wondering - 'where is this going next?'

If you're hoping that the whole idea might eventually stack up, The Defence is a bit more of a tough sell. Eddie Flynn, top lawyer, hustler, con-artist, pickpocket, former prize-fighter, just happens to be near superhuman, invincible and impossible to out-wit. There's a backstory in his unconventional upbringing that accounts for this to some extent, but still... the situation he finds himself in at the start of The Defence is unusual and about to reveal many more surprises.

Just out of rehab, having packed in his practice, Eddie is given an offer he can't refuse to represent a Russian mafia boss. He's to go into court, plant a bomb under the seat of the chief witness protected by the FBI, or else his kid gets it. What you should be asking at this stage (end of chapter one) is not 'Are you serious?', but 'How is he possibly going to pull this off?' And when you're dealing with a courtroom drama, that's exactly what you want, and that's the way The Defence keeps you throughout, chapter after chapter, continually raising the stakes.

To say that things get a little more involved would be a severe understatement. Eddie not only plans to get his daughter Amy back safely, if he can take out the whole of the Russian mob in the process, he's going to give it a shot. It's preposterous, but it's exciting - no question, and it works. Well, it works if you believe that all Eddie's contacts are super-efficient specialists and everyone else is a complete idiot, easily duped, but go with it. You won't be disappointed.

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