Against the Wind by J.F. Freedman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The first 100 pages of this book are amazing. First off, the main character has a wonderfully distinct voice, and his almost stream-of-consciousness narrative about being a burned out, alcoholic, soon-to-be-twice divorced defense lawyer learning about and dealing with a one-night stand, his betrayal at the hands of his law-firm partners, and a set of bizarre new clients, accused of murder, that fall into his lap is giddy and unrelenting. The brief, somewhat horrifying, omniscient narration of the lifestyles of those clients, is similarly compelling.
Unfortunately, this book is 450 pages long. As we get into the meat of the book, the trial of the lawyers clients, it pretty much falls apart. For one thing, because of the omniscient narrator, we know the truth, at least in terms of the biker's guilt or innocense, so there's no tension there. And since they are really the only threatening thing in this book, and they literally spend 430 out of 450 pages locked up, there's really not much suspense.
The various subplots which seem to exist either to provide an excuse for there to be more sex, or to explain that the gang-rapist bikers really aren't so bad after all, and it's ok to be rooting for them to get off. Not exactly satisfying, that. And the deus-ex-machina ending, makes the whole thing feel kind of silly.
The worst part is, as the lawyer gets his life straightened out, so too does his voice mellow. Since that was the most engaging part of the book, it really takes a downhill slide.
Bottom line. I enjoyed reading it. It moves swiftly. It was a fun legal thriller. But, man I wish the whole thing had the energy of those first 100 pages.
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