3 out of 4 stars
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Jason Harman is a competent, experienced New Jersey trial attorney. He knows the law forward and backward, but has poor judgement when choosing business associates. Due to his generous and trusting nature he becomes involved with the worst kind of people--people motivated only by greed regardless of who gets hurt and how. In the novel Runner, author Skye Nichols presents a credible case study of what can happen when people tasked with upholding the law become the criminals. Jason and his wife Elizabeth find themselves tangled in a complex web of deceit and malice. Whether they are able to escape it forms the body of this complex legal novel.
Set in Washington, New Jersey, New York and Washington, DC, Runner follows the circuitous path required of Jake as he works the biggest case of his career. Stretching over the course of 17 years, the majority of the plot involves Jason's connection to Daniel Bellotti and Joseph Blasi, two lawyers far less competent and far greedier than Jason is. This connection ends up affecting all aspects of Jason and Elizabeth's lives, even their relationships with family members and friends.
Readers who enjoy legal drama will like Runner. Ms. Nichols' intimate knowledge of the legal system is clear in her descriptions of the intricacies involved in preparing and trying cases before a jury. This book gives me an appreciation of the tangled nature of the relationships between lawyers and clients, and between members of legal counsel. Readers looking for a simpler, linear tale may choose another novel. Runner is a multi-branched story that takes its audience across the country and back, and forward and backward in time as the plot unfolds.
At times the book requires diligence to get through. Several passages appear to be repeated. Upon closer inspection, the passages are not identical, but just slightly different, stressing the specificity required in legal documentation. Even with this occasional difficulty, Runner is an enjoyable novel.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. Runner is intriguing, the situations are realistic and there are less than a handful of grammatical errors. Runner would have received a higher rating from me had the writing style been more engaging. The parts describing litigation were afforded credibility due to the legal terminology and specificity included. The dialogue between characters and the descriptions of the non-legal events in the story, however, would have been more enjoyable had the language describing them been more like a novel and less like a legal document.
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Runner
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