White Lies
 Michael R. Salinas
 (Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
 2001 Michael Salinas
  ISBN: 1929072333

A legal thriller about a young lawyer's first murder case.

Advocate & Sr. Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

White Lies is Texas lawyer Michael Salinas first foray into fiction writing. It is obvious that Salinas is a connoisseur of good legal thrillers -- I believe he has read Grisham, particularly The Chamber & The Rainmaker & Turow's Burden of Proof & Richard North Patterson Final Judgment - the influence of their works is clearly seen in White Lies.

John Abrams returns to his family home in Texas soon after finishing law school. He intends to be there just for a couple of weeks before he joins some hi-fi legal firm or other. However, plans go wry when John's uncle is murdered & John's father is arrested as the prime accused. Now it is up to John to defend his father -- what follows is the young lawyer's struggle to find answers, & he soon finds that some questions are better left unanswered.

This is a good, promising debut -- Salinas knows how to write a good thriller -- but there is nothing unique or special about White Lies. It follows the pattern & plot seen & read in many other novels. The plot setting is reminiscent of John Grisham's The Chamber & Rangelly Wallace's No Defense -- the young lawyer's probe into hidden family secrets is similar to the plot setting in Richard North Patterson's The Final Judgment.

The book might suffer from improper marketing. The paper & print are not of the best quality, the small font size makes reading hard & in this modern day world where books are judged by their covers, bad marketing will surely discourage the average reader.

All-in-all a fresher reader of legal thrillers might enjoy the book, but as a seasoned legal thriller bibliophile, I found the book ordinary, just ordinary.
(03/03/02)

Narayan
2002©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org