Part of Series
Attorney Paul Madriani defends a highly decorated soldier who is on trial for murder, and unwittingly steps into a maze of secrets and lies that the government - and even this client - would rather leave hidden and undisturbed.Madriani is faced with arcane ballistics evidence, the so-called double tap - two bullet wounds tightly grouped to a victim's head, from shots that can have been made only by a crack marksman. Madriani's client is an enigma, a career soldier who refuses to talk about his past, though clearly he is a battle-tested pro. The victim was an alluring businesswoman and software tycoon whose empire catered to the military, and the most damning evidence is the weapon that killed her: a handgun used solely in special operations where the double tap is the trademark of the most skilled assassins. Madriani begins to have new fears about his client, a man who would rather sit on a legal time bomb than talk about his past and get a chance at acquittal. And yet more troubling, Madriani discovers that the victim was involved in a controversial government contract to combat terrorism by combing through the private computer records of millions of American citizens. Madriani faces a wilderness of mirrors in a courtroom battle where every witness can hide behind "national security," where information is power and digital information is absolute power. It is a war in which the scales of justice are being tipped by evasion, deceit - and murder. Finding the unvarnished truth has never been so elusive - or so dangerous.
Author
Martini's first career was in journalism. He worked as a newspaper reporter for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the largest legal newspaper in the country covering the state, the local courts and the civic center beat. In 1970 he became the newspaper’s first correspondent at the State Capitol in Sacramento and later its bureau chief. There he specialized in legal and political coverage. During this period he attended night law school and in 1974 took his law degree from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. He was admitted to the Bar in January 1975. Martini has practiced law both privately as well as for public agencies appearing in state and federal courts. During his law career, in addition to other activities, he worked as a legislative representative for the California Department of Consumer Affairs, the State Bar of California, and served as special counsel to the California Victims of Violent Crimes Program. He has worked as an administrative hearing officer, a supervising hearing officer, an administrative law judge, and for a time served as Deputy Director of the State Office of Administrative Hearings. He is currently inactive with the State Bar of California, choosing writing instead as a full-time occupation. In the mid-1980s Martini began his fiction-writing career. His first attempt at a novel, The Simeon Chamber, was represented by an agent and sold to the New York publisher D.I. Fine within two weeks of its submission. It was published in 1987. Compelling Evidence, his second novel, introduced his series character, attorney Paul Madriani, and was published by G.P. Putnam & Sons. A national bestseller, the novel earned Martini a critical and popular following. It was followed quickly by New York Times bestsellers Prime Witness, Undue Influence, The Judge, and The Attorney, each featuring the series character Madriani and his contrarian and irrepressible law partner, Harry Hinds. The List, published in 1997, a novel and thriller about the commercial book publishing industry, was the first Martini novel to depart from the series characters since the author reached the best sellers list. Critical Mass, his next novel published in 1998, continued the departure from the courtroom as well as the Madriani series, though it involved a lawyer protagonist and was well within the legal-thriller genre. Critical Mass addressed issues of terrorism and the threat from weapons of mass destruction two years before the events of 9/11. It was a topic to which Martini would return in later years. Other novels by Martini include: The Jury, The Arraignment, Double Tap, Shadow of Power, Guardian of Lies, The Rule of Nine, and Trader of Secrets. To date, two network mini-series have been produced and broadcast based on Martini’s works, Undue Influence by CBS, and The Judge on NBC.
