Rogue Lawyer is a thriller novel about a divorced father and weird lawyer named Sabastian Rudd. His lesbian ex-wife—also a lawyer—leaves him for a woman named Ava. But the botched lawyer-lawyer union is blessed with a son, Starcher, who enjoys only thirty-six hours with his father every month.
Rudd has no office, save for his expensive van that doubles as an office and sometimes, a haven. He takes cases every other lawyer refuses. For this, his life is on the line every time. He has one sidekick whose name is Partner.
As fleeting as Rogue Lawyer is, it chronicles the court and personal life of Rudd. First it takes us through the case of Gardy, a young boy the people of the town of Milo believe has killed two girls—raped and left in a pool—and must be given a death sentence.
Rudd steps in and walks the guy out without a whiff of conviction. This is easy because Gardy is innocent. Rudd finds out the true killer through his lore of the street and the corrupt system in which Gardy is mired.
Then the plot snakes into a chain of other delicate issues until it gets to the cases of the Frenfros, of Link Scanlon, of the Kemps, and of the Zapate. All of these cases are significant plot points, and they affect the life of Rudd.
Matter-of-factly, the cases of Link and the Kemps almost cost his life and that of his eight-year-old son. But the case of Tadoe Zapate tops the chart; not in its viscosity but its shaky solidity.
Tadoe Zapate is Rudd’s fav cage fighter. He loses a match to Crush and angrily plonks the ref, leaving him dead after twenty-something punches on the head. Tadoe is hauled to court, put on trial.
Rudd knows the odds are against his client, but he pushes to water down the sentence. There is finally an option for a plea. But Tadoe refuses to plead guilty; he believes good manipulation will have a hung jury at the end.
Tadoe would get his shock.
Rudd isn’t to blame.
I give John Grisham‘s Rogue Lawyer a 5/5.
