May 20, 2024
The plot reversals come fast and furious in this unconvincing legal thriller from Edgar winner Ellis (Look Closer). Illinois attorney Leo Balanoff, a diagnosed pathological liar, is back in trouble after successfully fighting to have his law license reinstated. Leo’s DNA has been found on the shirtsleeve of murdered human trafficker Cyrus Balik, making him the prime suspect in the slaying. Though Leo maintains his innocence, his alleged motive is clear-cut: he represented Bonnie Tressler in a lawsuit against Balik for hooking her on narcotics and raping her when she was 14 years old. Bonnie overdosed before she could be called to the stand in that case, and Leo and the cops suspected Balik of having her killed. The FBI cuts Leo a deal: they’ll keep him out of prison if he helps take down Balik’s syndicate. That mission puts him back in touch with his ex-girlfriend, a former cop who’s now working for a company developing a mysterious cure for cancer. The overstuffed plot also includes flashbacks to Leo’s long history of deceit that continually recast the present-day action in a new light. Ellis’s storytelling gets too tangled, and his characters are too implausible, for this to cohere. Here’s hoping Ellis’s next outing marks a return to form. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Literary.
June 20, 2024
In Chicago, risk-taking defense attorney Leo Balanoff advocates passionately for Bonnie Tessler, who has accused underworld heavy Cyrus Balik of trafficking her when she was fourteen and kidnapping her baby. But soon after their meeting with the CPD, both Tessler and Balik are dead, and Leo is the prime suspect in Balik's murder. Ruthless kingpin Nico Katsaros demands that Leo make up for the death by standing in for Balik in an imminent smuggling operation. Compounding the pressure, FBI agent Chris Roberti learns of Kasaros' demand and leans on Leo to work as his informant. Meanwhile, at pharma giant Quigley Crowe International, Leo's ex-fianc�, Andi Piotrowski, heads both the security team guarding the top-secret Project Nano and Katsaros' team of spies poised to sell Nano's specs to the Chinese government. Fortunately, none of them have accounted for Leo's strategic cunning and charm, which is how Ellis weaves together a complex but cohesive plot from a seemingly disparate tangle of human traffickers, dirty cops, shady pharma execs, underground adoptions, and first love.
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