Phillip Margolin has brought back Amanda Jaffe in Ties That Bind.  We last saw Amanda in Wild Justice, where she was one of the victims of a very evil bad guy.  Now, she's a defense attorney, still suffering from the psychological effects of those events, but trying to move forward.

Now she's being asked to defend Dupre, a drug dealer and a pimp, accused of killing a US senator, as well as his previous defense attorney.  It looks like an uphill battle, indeed, as the mountain of evidence against Dupre seems insurmountable, including an eye witness who wasn't more than 10 feet away from him when he killed the lawyer.  So how can Dupre possibly claim his innocence?  Yet, that's exactly what he's doing. 

As Amanda digs further into Dupre's claims, she uncovers a conspiracy going back 30 years.  A conspiracy involving some very big mucky-mucks, who will go to extremes to keep their secrets safe.

There are a few good things about this book, but unfortunately they are outweighed by the flaws.  Like the fact that there are so many characters introduced it was ridiculous trying to keep them all straight.  And, other than Amanda, none of the other characters are given any depth whatsoever.  They're either a "bad guy" or a "good guy".  There are no shades of gray here, nor is there any real background given to any of them.  They may as well have been named "Character A", "Character B", etc., for all the individuality their given.

I can't even say that I particularly cared whether Dupre was convicted or not.  Whether he's guilty of these particular crimes didn't really matter to me.  He's shown to be an evil man who doles out his share of pain on a daily basis, just by living his shady life.  So, if he didn't actually commit these two crimes, who cares?  He's skated by on plenty others.  And it's not just me who feels this way. This same attitude is reflected in the minds of the other characters as well.

Another problem is that the book is just terribly, horribly boring.  It only gets exciting towards the very end, when the entire story starts to really come together.  But before that, we're given lots of snippets, told from many points of view, but nothing that ties anything together, and nothing that really held my attention.  In fact, I have to say it was a "struggle" to get through.

There are only two things I actually liked about this book.  One was the way Amanda has matured since Wild Justice.  In that book, she was acted like a whiny, immature child with a huge chip on her shoulder.  In this book, she's come into her own, and acts like the grown up she is.  I was glad to see this transformation and hope she continues on a journey of growth and maturity.

The other thing I liked about this book was the ending.  And I don't just mean that I was happy it finally ended, although that was certainly the case.  But there are some nice surprises tossed in towards the end that helped redeem the book.  A little bit.

But for the most part, you can easily skip this one.

Also by Phillip Margolin:
After Dark
The Associate
The Undertaker's Widow
Wild Justice


Recommended: No