shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Interviews | November 3, 2009

Sheila A.: IMG On Storytelling: The Powells.com Interview with Donald Miller



donaldmillerDonald Miller is a Christian writer, but the question that Miller asks with his latest memoir, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is applicable to... Continue »
  1. $13.99 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Shadow of Power (Paul Madriani Novels)

by Steve Martini

Shadow of Power (Paul Madriani Novels) Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The Supreme Court is one of our most sacred — and secretive — public institutions. But sometimes secrets can lead to cover-ups with very deadly consequences.

Terry Scarborough is a legal scholar and provocateur who craves headline-making celebrity, but with his latest book he may have gone too far. In it he resurrects forgotten language in the U.S. Constitution — and hints at a missing letter of Thomas Jefferson's — that threatens to divide the nation.

Then, during a publicity tour, Scarborough is brutally murdered in a San Diego hotel room, and a young man with dark connections is charged. What looks like an open-and-shut case to most people doesn't to defense attorney Paul Madriani. He believes that there is much more to the case and that the defendant is a pawn caught in the middle, being scapegoated by circumstance.

As the trial spirals toward its conclusion, Madriani and his partner, Harry Hinds, race to find the missing Jefferson letter — and the secrets it holds about slavery and scandal at the time of our nation's founding and the very reason Scarborough was killed. Madriani's chase takes him from the tension-filled courtroom in California to the trail of a high court justice now suddenly in hiding and lays bare the soaring political stakes for a seat on the highest court, in a country divided, and under the shadow of power.

Review:

"Bestseller Martini's entertaining ninth Paul Madriani legal thriller (after 2005's Double Tap) offers an improbable if intriguing premise. San Diego, Calif., attorney Madriani and Harry Hinds, his longtime partner, agree to represent Carl Arnsberg, a racist facing execution for the bludgeoning-by-hammer murder of author Terry Scarborough, whose nonfiction bestseller, Perpetual Slaves, has actually led to riots in the streets. Scarborough focused the U.S. public on the retention in the Constitution of offensive language defining African-Americans as three-fifths human, despite subsequent amendments overriding those statements. He intended to follow Perpetual Slaves with a sequel that would reveal the existence of a secret letter written by Thomas Jefferson whose contents Scarborough believed would prove even more incendiary. Madriani and his team race frantically to trace a copy of that letter, which disappeared from the victim's briefcase at about the time of his murder. Compelling courtroom scenes, which display a sophisticated knowledge of legal trench warfare, compensate for some less-than-credible plot twists." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"[S]omewhat implausible but gripping....[T]he mix of racial tension and courtroom drama combines for a suspenseful thriller." Booklist

Synopsis:

Murder reaches deep into the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court in this electrifying new thriller featuring defense attorney Paul Madriani.

About the Author

Steve Martini is the author of The Arraignment, The Jury, The Attorney, and other New York Times-bestselling novels featuring attorney Paul Madriani. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780061230882
Author:
Martini, Steve
Publisher:
William Morrow & Company
Author:
by Steve Martini
Author:
by Steve Martini
Subject:
Thrillers
Subject:
Legal
Subject:
Madriani, Paul (Fictitious character)
Subject:
Legal stories
Subject:
Mystery fiction
Edition Description:
Hardcover
Series:
Paul Madriani Novels
Publication Date:
May 2008
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
390
Dimensions:
9.28x6.34x1.30 in. 1.44 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $5.95 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Protect and Defend

    Vince Flynn
  2. $4.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    The Whole Truth

    David Baldacci
  3. $13.25 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Final Theory

    Mark Alpert
  4. $5.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    The Last Patriot

    Brad Thor
  5. $11.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Eclipse (Twilight Saga #3 )

    Stephenie Meyer
  6. $3.95 New Trade Paper add to wish list

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.