Book Review: Trial by Fire

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Trial by Fire     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
D. W. Buffa
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Legal Setting   Thriller
Series: Joseph Antonelli # 7
Putnam, April 2005, $24.95, 304 pp.

Famous defense attorney Joseph Antonelli and Berkley law professor Justin Sinclair met on the talk show “The Bryan Allen Show”, with lawyer Paula Constable and San Francisco assistant district attorney Daphne McMillan. There was a rapport between Antonelli and Justin from the start. Joseph represents all the goodness humanity has to offer while Justin admires the defense attorney and thinks of him as a defender of truth. It is to Joseph that Justin turns when he gets in legal trouble.

Justin calls Joseph early one morning and asks him to come over to his house. When he arrives, he sees the butchered up body of Daphne there. Justin admits she spent the night in his house but he never killed her or heard any intruder in the house. Joseph knows Justin is innocent and agrees to be his lawyer but before the case can go to trial, it is played out in the media. Justin is found guilty and is sentenced to life without parole but Joseph is determined to prove that Daphne’s abusive husband killed her and he goes to amazing lengths to see that justice prevails.

D.W. Buffa is one of the few authors since perhaps Zola who can write a legal thriller and make it become a work of literary fiction that is quite exciting. The story of TRIAL BY FIRE is not about guilt or innocence or the death sentence but how a person’s life can be decided in the court of public opinion enflamed by a J’accuse media of controversial shock television and radio shows. This work is haunting, memorable and will be considered a classic in the years to come.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner