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A review by keith_nixon
The Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanagh
4.0
It's been a while since I read an Eddie Flynn novel, I managed to miss the last couple of installments. I thoroughly enjoyed The Plea and The Liar when Eddie (if I remember right) was operating pretty much on his own and by his conman wits.
In The Devil's Advocate, Eddie and his team are up against an Alabama DA, Randall Korn. A young man, Andy Dubois, has been accused of murdering teenager, Skylar Edwards. The case is a dead cert, with a mound of evidence and two guilty confessions. A government fixer, Berlin, comes in to persuade Eddie to take the case, because Korn is known to enjoy seeing convicted killers die (Korn's county has the highest death penalty count in the US). So, how can Eddie resist?
Cavanagh makes it immediately obvious that Korn is the bad guy, a truly bad guy. So obvious it could be tattooed on Korn's forehead in big red letters. And everyone else seems to know it, too. Korn has the sheriff and half the cops in his pocket, he scares witnesses and experts alike to do his bidding. Nobody likes it, not really, but they're all too scared to push back. The novel possesses a very clear good vs. evil theme (made obvious via the title).
But Korn isn't the only antagonist, there's also The Pastor, a killer too, a white supremacist who wants to make a big and very deadly statement, so that strand runs as an undercurrent beneath Eddie and the team's investigation into Korn. Unlike Korn, who's a big red flag, The Pastor operates much more undercover and his identity is only revealed in the final few pages.
Cavanagh creates a lot of jeopardy for his characters and there are several deaths along the way creating a seemingly impossible mountain for Eddie to climb. The characters are really well developed and compelling. And there's an unmissable element of racism and gun advocacy here too.
All in all I enjoyed the plot and Eddie plays his usual hand - the law wins out but needs a push along the way. There was something missing, though, which I can't quite put my finger on. A small amount of dissatisfaction with the story that cost the one star. Maybe it was that despite the challenges facing Eddie and his guys it all kind of felt inevitable? Or that Korn was so overtly evil, like there wasn't anyone who wasn't aware? I don't know, I haven't figured it out yet.
Nevertheless, this is a good, taut read from a fine thriller writer.
In The Devil's Advocate, Eddie and his team are up against an Alabama DA, Randall Korn. A young man, Andy Dubois, has been accused of murdering teenager, Skylar Edwards. The case is a dead cert, with a mound of evidence and two guilty confessions. A government fixer, Berlin, comes in to persuade Eddie to take the case, because Korn is known to enjoy seeing convicted killers die (Korn's county has the highest death penalty count in the US). So, how can Eddie resist?
Cavanagh makes it immediately obvious that Korn is the bad guy, a truly bad guy. So obvious it could be tattooed on Korn's forehead in big red letters. And everyone else seems to know it, too. Korn has the sheriff and half the cops in his pocket, he scares witnesses and experts alike to do his bidding. Nobody likes it, not really, but they're all too scared to push back. The novel possesses a very clear good vs. evil theme (made obvious via the title).
But Korn isn't the only antagonist, there's also The Pastor, a killer too, a white supremacist who wants to make a big and very deadly statement, so that strand runs as an undercurrent beneath Eddie and the team's investigation into Korn. Unlike Korn, who's a big red flag, The Pastor operates much more undercover and his identity is only revealed in the final few pages.
Cavanagh creates a lot of jeopardy for his characters and there are several deaths along the way creating a seemingly impossible mountain for Eddie to climb. The characters are really well developed and compelling. And there's an unmissable element of racism and gun advocacy here too.
All in all I enjoyed the plot and Eddie plays his usual hand - the law wins out but needs a push along the way. There was something missing, though, which I can't quite put my finger on. A small amount of dissatisfaction with the story that cost the one star. Maybe it was that despite the challenges facing Eddie and his guys it all kind of felt inevitable? Or that Korn was so overtly evil, like there wasn't anyone who wasn't aware? I don't know, I haven't figured it out yet.
Nevertheless, this is a good, taut read from a fine thriller writer.