The Accomplice - Steve Cavanagh

Steve Cavanagh took his maverick New York lawyer Eddie Flynn out of his comfort zone in his previous book, The Devil's Advocate. Not everyone was convinced about the way he almost single-handedly dealt a blow to the institutionalised racism of a small Alabama community, but I thought it was still a thrilling edge-of-the-seat ride. With The Accomplice Eddie Flynn is back on familiar ground, in New York dealing with a criminal court case in his own irreverent fashion. Maybe a little too familiar ground is covered here, but with Steve Cavanagh you can be sure to expect plenty of surprises along the way.

The current case he is involved with might not be the biggest case of his career - each respective case has certainly lived up to that billing so far - but it's only one step removed from it. An utterly fearsome serial killer known as the Sandman has been terrorising the city, mutilating bodies, removing the eyes from his victims and filling their empty sockets with sand. The police have identified the killer from a stray thumb print found at one murder scene belonging to wealthy businessman Daniel Miller, but The Sandman still remains at large and very, very dangerous. Perhaps even more dangerous than before, because his wife Carrie has been arrested and put on trial, accused of being his accomplice, and he is making dead sure that there are going to be no witnesses to testify against her.

You would think however that having Eddie Flynn as her defense lawyer might be enough, but Eddie is far from sure he can win this case. Just to give him an added incentive, the Sandman has abducted his assistant attorney Kate. As long as Carrie isn't convicted, Kate might be safe, but aside from effectively working on behalf of a serial killer still at large, Eddie has other problems to surmount. Neither the judge nor the jury seem to be on his side, and in the absence of the Sandman, the FBI and the authorities would be keen to get a conviction, even if it is just to take down his wife as an accomplice. Admittedly, Eddie has faced down much tougher setbacks than that, but what makes this one even more of a challenge is that his defendant has disappeared and is going to be tried, and likely convicted, in her absence.

There are some things you know to expect with a Steve Cavanagh novel and Eddie Flynn delivers them. Flying by the seat of his pants for one thing, and Flynn is still working on the defense even as his team are gathering information and setting up con tricks he can use to his advantage - and to showman effect - in the courtroom. If it seems a little flat this time it may be that we've seen it all before, but another explanation is that Eddie is under serious pressure this time, isn't so sure of himself and is worried that he might even be covering up and acting in behalf of someone who is indeed the accomplice to a deadly killer.

That's all well and good, and Steve Cavanagh delivers another slick, fast moving thriller with showstopping cross-examination moments in the courtroom that are just jaw-dropping, but other than that, there are indeed few real surprises. You might even work out where this one is going much earlier than usual, although you can be sure that Cavanagh always has another card up his sleeve. Eddie, the former light-fingered con-man not so much, and you miss that aspect now that the former lone-wolf, street lawyer is now a high flying attorney with a super competent team behind him. That allows him to get doors kicked down and answers delivered more quickly when under pressure, but it's just not as much fun as the earlier books when every page was jaw-dropping and every chapter would end with Eddie in an impossible life-threatening cliffhanger situation. It's perhaps a measure of how good Steve Cavanagh has become as a writer that the impossible has given way to the plausible. Or the almost plausible, because with Eddie Flynn there is always still an unpredictable edge. 

Reading notes: The Accomplice by Steve Cavanagh is published by Orion on the 21st July. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance proof.