Bleedout

Whitbread Award?winning novelist Brady (Theory of War) has crafted an action-packed, densely woven thriller set in Springfield, Ill., about a blind attorney and the young man who may or may not have murdered him. David Marion, 33, who spent his teens and 20s in prison for the murder of his foster brother and foster father, is now the prime suspect in the brutal murder of Hugh Freyl, the lawyer who reformed Marion in prison. As a trusting relationship blossomed between the two men, Hugh realized how smart, decent?and innocent?David really was; the story of their friendship is told in flashbacks. At the start of the present-day narrative, "gate-crasher" David ducks into Freyl's funeral tent to pay his respects, much to the horror of the other guests, mostly condescending high society types like Hugh's mother, Becky. But as Hugh and his personal assistant Stephanie Willis had discovered before Hugh's death, David was probably never a killer. More digging reveals prison torture, child abuse and serious flaws in the original case against David. Meanwhile, positive evidence proves David had nothing to do with Hugh's death, and he shifts into fierce detective mode with Stephanie's help and some cash incentive from shifty Becky, discovering "overcultivated orchards of corporate fraud" within Hugh's slick law firm. After Stephanie and David sift through several backstabbing crooks, the real killer is flushed out at the conclusion of this satisfying if somewhat long-winded novel.