High Crimes - Joseph Finder

High Crimes is a thrilling suspense novel, where the action is not in police chases or the pursuit of villains, but instead in a court room where justice is being served... only without the justice part.

Highly esteemed lawyer, Claire Heller Chapman, is well respected in her career and a fierce opponent in court. She teaches as a professor in the ivy league school of Harvard. Her second husband, Thomas Chapman, is emotionally supportive to her as her first had never been. He is also a wonderful father to her young daughter and after three years of marriage, Claire is convinced that he is perfect for her. She believes she has found her prince charming.

Then, after a family dinner, the FBI themselves come to arrest Thomas, claiming him to be a murderer. Before her eyes, everything Claire knew to be her life and everything that she thought her husband to be crumbles into the ruins of a shattered facade.

Her husband preforms stunts she never knew he could do, immobilizing an officer, climbing walls, and bolting through the fingers of the authorities. She researches what he left behind and finds his college has no records of him, no one at his high school remembers him, the father that showed up at their wedding does not exist, every business he worked at has gone under, and that he has no social security payments or credit record before 1985.

Of course, this is all within the first fifty pages of the book.

When Thomas is finally caught, he pleads Claire to take his case and save him from the death penalty that he faces. Out of love and out of trust, Claire does everything in her power to clear her husband's name. Tension in the story rises with each new piece of evidence brought forth to the court room.

The story is beautifully scripted, though it uses a lot of legal jargon. None of it is all too difficult, though, as I had few problems understanding what was going on after Government and Civics, and Finder explains as much as he can without watering down the story.

Never believe what is told to you, and be reluctant to believe yourself... at least in a Joseph Finder novel.

Weishan Chin

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