In Her Defense
From AwardAnnals
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| Author(s) | Stephen Horn |
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| Subtitle | A Novel |
| Publisher | Harpercollins |
| Honors | |
| A lawyer with an appetite for risk. A gorgeous socialite accused of murder. It’s the case of a lifetime—if only she were innocent.
Following in the blockbuster tradition of Scott Turow and Richard North Patterson comes Stephen Horn and In Her Defense, and intense, riveting debut thriller with a twist. Frank O’Connell’s need to live on the edge cost him his family, his home, and a partnership in his father-in-law’s prestigious Washington firm. Now he combs the cell blocks for clients and wonders if he’s sunk too low ever to come back. His ex-wife… | |
A lawyer with an appetite for risk. A gorgeous socialite accused of murder. It’s the case of a lifetime—if only she were innocent.
Following in the blockbuster tradition of Scott Turow and Richard North Patterson comes Stephen Horn and In Her Defense, and intense, riveting debut thriller with a twist.
Frank O’Connell’s need to live on the edge cost him his family, his home, and a partnership in his father-in-law’s prestigious Washington firm. Now he combs the cell blocks for clients and wonders if he’s sunk too low ever to come back. His ex-wife wants to see less of him, his therapist wants to see more, and his last link to professional survival just gave him an ultimatum.
Then into his office walks Ashley Bronson. The murder of a former cabinet official has just propelled her from the society column to the front page, and, inexplicably, she wants Frank to defend her. She hands him her case, followed by her confession and some damning physical evidence. Frank thinks his biggest challenge is her guilt. He’s got a lot to learn.
Ashley’s admission proves just another detail in a defense in which ethics are bent and morals compromised. As the trial date looms closer, the goverment’s case seems insurmountable. A desperate Frank hits upon an inspired strategy—and unwittingly becomes a threat to people in high places when he unravels a tangled web of events that began a generation ago.
Their personal lives in tatters and confronted by forces they don’t understand, besieged lawyer and client have only each other as the courtroom battle begins.
In this fast-paced legal thriller, former federal prosecutor Stephen Horn brings his knowledge of law and government to stunning life with this absorbing tale of love, betrayal, and murder that is sure to be one of the most entertaining and engrossing stories of the year.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
In Her Defense is a sharply funny and ironic debut legal thriller that obligingly serves up all the best elements of the genre: a seemingly unwinnable case, mysterious forces conspiring against the attorney and his client, and a tumblingly relentless pace. D.C. defense attorney Frank O’Connell isn’t climbing the career ladder anymore—he’s been to the top, looked around, and then jumped. Deeply unsatisfied with his comfortable life, he’s abandoned a successful partnership with his powerful father-in-law, jettisoned his marriage, and is clinging to an uncertain existence funded by court appointments to represent indigent shoplifters and drug dealers: “I was in trouble and I knew it. I’d come to rely on little tasks and routines, like closing the sofa bed each morning and washing the dishes as soon as I ate—not to mark my progress but as hedges against a backslide into oblivion.”
Enter Ashley Bronson, a beautiful and wealthy socialite who stands accused of murdering her father’s best friend, Raymond Garvey. Ashley claims that Garvey drove her father to suicide but won’t explain how or why. Frank is a pragmatist, keenly appreciative of life’s myriad ironies: “I could probably design a trial strategy around her physical assets alone—get a jury of men, put her on the stand, and have her look ‘em in the eye and talk. Christ, she could read the phone book and we’d get a deadlock. It was too bad I knew she was guilty.” Ashley’s admission of guilt and Frank’s desperate attempt to create a trial strategy over, under, around, and through that admission make for a cleverly Machiavellian legal procedural. Add to this Frank’s growing conviction that something isn’t quite “clicking” in this seemingly open-and-shut case, and you’ve got a narrative that accelerates toward an unashamedly over-the-top denouement. In Her Defense is a welcome addition to a crowded genre—we hope that Frank O’Connell (and Stephen Horn) will be around for many more pitched legal battles. —Kelly Flynn
Barnes and Noble
The legal thriller, a once thriving subgenre that has suffered a slight downturn in recent years, appears to be undergoing a modest resurgence. Over the past several months, a number of talented newcomers—practicing attorneys who can actually write—have entered the field, among them Sheldon Siegel, who started off the new year with his sparkling legal melodrama, Special Circumstances, and, most recently, Stephen Horn, who makes a notable debut with In Her Defense, a stylish, convoluted account of blackmail, murder, and governmental conspiracy.
The narrator/hero of In Her Defense is Frank O’Connell, a once prominent Washington attorney who has fallen on hard times. A few years before the narrative begins, Frank appeared to have everything: a thriving marriage, a full partnership in his father-in-law’s prestigious law firm, and virtually unlimited prospects. Responding to a combination of influences—such as his innate love of risk and his growing sense that life had become too predictable, too comfortable—he walked out on his affluent partnership and set up shop on his own, sacrificing his home and his marriage in the process.
Three years after walking out, Frank has a therapist, a one-bedroom apartment, a borrowed office, and a subsistence-level practice as a court-appointed public defender. Then, without warning, a lucrative, high-profile murder case falls into his lap.
Ashley Bronson, a beautiful and wealthy Washington socialite, has been accused of murdering Raymond Garvey, a former secretary of commerce who made a handsome living as a deal-maker, facilitator, and power broker. Impressed by Frank’s demeanor during a glancing encounter in a D.C. holding cell, Ashley impulsively hires him to manage her defense and then delivers the worst possible news: she is, in fact, guilty as charged. Convinced that Garvey had provoked her father—a scientist and patron of the arts named Henry Bronson—into committing suicide, Ashley confronted Garvey in his Georgetown residence and shot him to death.
In Her Defense recounts Frank’s dogged attempts to obscure the facts in order to introduce the necessary element of “reasonable doubt.” When his best efforts—which include attacking the validity of the physical evidence and impugning the credibility of the state’s leading witness—prove insufficient, Frank alters his strategy and begins to scrutinize the hostile relationship between the murder victim, Raymond Garvey, and the suicide of Henry Bronson.
The resulting investigation has unexpected consequences and involves the interconnected machinations of an aristocratic Virginian named Sherman Burroughs, a sinister corporation called Octagon, and a deceased Soviet defector named Kovalev. The various threads lead backward in time to the early days of the cold war, the clandestine world of atomic research, and a misguided act of idealism whose aftereffects can still be felt nearly half a century later. The subsequent discovery of the FBI’s covert—and highly illegal—involvement in these matters provides Frank with a last-ditch opportunity to influence the course of the trial, and to introduce a startling new interpretation of the events leading up to Raymond Garvey’s death.
Not every aspect of In Her Defense works equally well. Horn’s conspiracy-driven plot occasionally strains the novel’s credibility, and the obligatory romance that develops between Frank and his client is considerably less interesting than the legal drama that surrounds it. For the most part, the book works. The first-person narrative is crisp and clean, the dialogue smart and edgy, the legal maneuverings compelling, and the courtroom sequences (particularly the extended cross-examination of a supposed eyewitness) authoritative and dramatic.
But the real strength of In Her Defense lies in Horn’s thoughtful, empathetic presentation of Frank O’Connell as an intelligent, vulnerable, fiercely competitive figure who has somehow lost his way. The Ashley Bronson trial provides Frank with both a vehicle for his professional rehabilitation and a lifeline that leads him, slowly and with much difficulty, toward an act of reconciliation that is credible and affecting. Stephen Horn may not be the next Scott Turow, but he is a gifted storyteller and an acute observer of men and women under pressure. He has written a lively, likeable courtroom thriller that is consistently entertaining and cumulatively involving. I look forward to encountering his work again. —Bill Sheehan
