The Devil's Advocate

This book and others by this author blew me away, I couldn’t stop reading! Ordered all releases by Steve Cavanagh. Pure fun, with lots of suspense and great story telling. Don’t miss this, I can’t wait for more from him..

Book Review – The Devil’s Advocate – Steve CavanaghFormer con-artist turned hot shot New York City lawyer Eddie Flynn travels south to Alabama to fight fire with fire regarding a twisted ritualistic killing. When a young ‘white’ woman is found murdered in small town Buckstown, a corrupt sheriff arrests the last person to see her alive and it doesn't seem to matter to anyone that the young ‘black’ man is innocent. Everyone in Buckstown believes the accuser – the young black man - is guilty. He has no hope of a fair trial in the small Southern town and the local defense attorney assigned to represent him has disappeared. In steps Eddie Flynn who plans to destroy the prosecutor’s case, find the real killer and save the young black man from the electric chair. Author Steve Cavanagh’s “The Devil’s Advocate” echoes the 1930s Alabama depiction of “To Kill a Mockingbird” with the entrenched racism and the iconic lawyer, Atticus Finch, defending a black man falsely accused of rape. Cavanagh's fast paced and twisty storytelling is full of thrills and spills, packed with elevated levels of suspense and tension, and presented with intense courtroom drama. Most of the book has Flynn uncertain as to whether justice will prevail, but his principles will not allow him to give up, despite knowing his life and those of his team are at stake. This is a wonderfully dark and powerful legal thriller, where once again Eddie Flynn falls back on a skill set acquired from his past as a con man. Flynn and his team masterfully dominate the Southern courtroom. all while uncovering a toxic brew of corruption, more murders, blackmail, intimidation, lies, greed, and outright criminality blanketing the small Southern ‘racist’ town. This complex story of racism, white supremacy and bigotry hurts my heart. It is such a filthy plague! However, Cavanagh did an incredible job at highlighting the danger that racism is when it’s supported by the media, law enforcement, elected officials, and ordinary folk. Unfortunately, it’s still a stereotypic curse in the South. Yet, Cavanagh masterfully spelled out the mysterious motive behind the murder of the young woman which tied the story neatly together at the end. This is an engrossing and riveting read. Highly recommended to all crime and legal thriller fans.

Good story, good writing, clever author. Just an enjoyable book. Nothing heavy. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to follow the plot. A quick and easy read.

This story is about a struggle between good and evil. The evil is men who care nothing for human life and everything for their own enjoyment - no matter how perverse.. In this case it includes a group of men in Alabama who are racist and planning to step up their hateful operations to include many lives. The good are Edd ie Flynn and his team who fly in from New York and Save an innocent man from the electric chair and unravel the plans of a danerous group of haters. This is 6th in a very good series.

Absolutely terrific. I loved how the author tied present American current events with past Southern history. This is an amazing book. This story shows the need for human compassion in real life from within the framework of a fictional story. God bless this author. A truly stunning story. 20 stars out of a possible 20 stars.

District Attorney Randal Korn waits with Darius Robinson, who is to be executed in the electric chair, while they await the decision of Governor Patchett. Korn says, “I’m innocent, and they all know it.” Patchett finally states that he’ll leave the decision up to the D.A. Korn enjoys watching Darius during the nine minutes it takes him to die. Enjoys it too much. This is how Steve Cavanagh’s sixth book in the Eddie Flynn series begins. In “The Devil’s Advocate” (2021, 399 pages in paperback format), Eddie is in a partnership practice with Kate Brooks, his opponent in the trial that took place in the author’s fifth book in the series. Enter Alexander Berlin, one of those shadowy figures who seems to work for multiple triple-letter agencies of the U.S. government. He tells Eddie that Korn, D.A. of a small town in Alabama, seeks the death penalty as often as possible, always wins the case, and 20 percent of the inmates on death row were put there by Korn. Eddie asks, “You’re saying this guy, Korn, became a district attorney so that he could kill people?” It is especially disconcerting that a hugely disproportionate number of executions originated with Korn and Judge Chandler, so Eddie and his best friend and consultant Harry drive to Bucksville to take the case of Andy Dubois, a young black man who is accused of killing prom queen Skyler Edwards. When Eddie and Harry arrive in town, they find that there are no rooms available in the hotels, although they both have “VACANCY” signs posted. Also, the proprietor of the restaurant won’t serve them, and the tires on their car have been slashed. When Eddie is then prohibited from seeing his client in the jailhouse, he gets himself arrested in order to get into the cellblock. The following day, Kate and her investigator Bloch ride to the rescue. With Eddie now out of jail and with his team, he’s determined to get Andy out of the clutches of Sheriff Lomax, D.A. Korn, and Judge Chandler. Kate, who has demonstrated her competence as a lawyer in the previous book, drafts motions for a change of venue, discovery of missing evidence, and bail. The judge denies all, except bail, which he sets at $500,000 in cash, knowing that Andy’s mother doesn’t have a dime. Eddie contacts Berlin, who has access to government megabucks, but he can only come up with $125,000 by the close of day, the judge’s limit on the posting of bail. Falling back on his skills as a former conman, Eddie manipulates the situation so that the court’s clerk believes that she’s counted out half a million. But, although Andy is free (at least temporarily), he’s not out of danger, and neither is anybody else. There are frequent references to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the book and movie about a lawyer defending a black man in a murder trial in 1950’s Alabama. In Mockingbird, the climax occurred with the defense summation to the jury; in Advocate, it’s uncertain that Eddie will ever get to court, let alone give a jury-swaying argument...,Jim Glynn

I liked this first time I have read his books but I will read more by him.

I’ m mesmerised with his thrillers. I absolutely adore reading his unique; twisted, unexpected, plots! I try to make the novels last….. to fully savour every moment and to make the story last!Looking for book-reading thrills? He won’t disappoint! Highly recommend.

Gut geschrieben, schönes Englisch, spannend wie ein Roman von John Grisham, ein Blick hinter die Kulissen des US-Rechtssystems. Mittelgroße Schriftgröße, für alte Augen etwas zu klein, aber sonst ok, empfehlenswert! Macht Lust auf weitere Bände von Cavanagh.

Un libro che indubbiamente ti prende: all’inizio è un colpo di scena continuo, e come con la legge di Murphy, se può andar male lo farà! Così, ti domandi: come potrà, come potranno i nostri eroi, non dico vincere la causa, ma portare a casa la pellaccia? (E - fra parentesi - come farà l’autore del libro a schivare le vendette degli abitanti dell’Alabama, dopo che ha tanto bistrattato la loro madre terra?). Quando proprio si pensa che non ci sia via d’uscita, la situazione volge al meglio, un po’ troppo e un po’ troppo all’improvviso, in realtà. Non conosco abbastanza il sistema giudiziario USA, ma dopo tanti film visti e libri letti ho il dubbio che alcune libertà che i nostri si prendono in aula non sarebbero tollerate nella vita reale... Comunque, se “all’s well that ends well”, siamo contenti di vedere il giovane accusato tornare libero. Anche se in realtà, non ne avevamo mai dubitato.

Si l'on aime les romans de Connelly, Koben et consorts, celui-ci esst dans la même veine. On est scotché depuis la première page jusqu'à la fin!