Judgment Cometh by Scott Pratt

Judgment Cometh is Scott Pratt’s eighth installment in his Joe Dillard series.  Dillard has slowed his caseload as an attorney to allow time to attend to his wife as she struggles with a new onslaught of cancer. But from an adjacent county comes a case that Joe decides he needs to take.  Joe is hired by Michael Craig, a wealthy doctor to defend his brother who has been arrested for murder.

  

David Craig is stopped by a Deputy Sheriff for a possible DUI late one night on a lonely mountain highway.  The deputy finds two sealed coolers in the back of Craig’s pickup, full of human body parts.  DNA analysis identifies the dismembered body as that of a missing Tennessee Supreme Court judge, one of several Tennessee judges who have disappeared or have been murdered of late.  But Craig’s interrogation and arrest are bungled by the locals and Dillard gets a judge to disallow most of the evidence against Craig.  In dealing with the sober David Craig, Joe becomes convinced of Craig’s innocence but Craig refuses to name the true killer for fear of retribution.  With the help of Joe’s pal, Leon Bates, the lawyer vows to find the real murderer.  Leon is the sheriff in Joe’s home county and has a ‘do whatever it takes’ code like Joe’s, particularly when friends and family are threatened.  Together they have thwarted many bad guys.  When Joe is able to extract the name of the brutal murderer from Craig, the race is on.  Find the guy and enough evidence to convict him or stop him in whatever way possible before he kills Craig, more judges, or Leon and Joe.

Judgement Cometh is another great addition to the Joe Dillard series.  Joe’s personal code again conflicts with the law at times but he is able to maneuver around ethical issues in the name of justice… a fine line he walks.   

A Crime of Passion by Scott Pratt

Joe Dillard is a successful defense attorney in a small town in East Tennessee: successful enough that he can be selective about which clients he represents.  The cancer that previously attacked his wife Caroline has returned and he cherishes any time spent with her.  Then a client turns up he cannot refuse.

 

Paul Millius is a wealthy Nashville record label owner who is accused of murdering his eighteen year old protégée, Kasey Cartwright.  Kasey’s career as a country music singer was blossoming under Millius’s direction.  Then one night Paul and Kasey are overheard having a heated discussion and Kasey’s body is found hours later in her hotel room.  When police learn that Paul was the last person to see Kasey alive, he is arrested for her murder.  As rumors circulate about Millius’s reputation as a womanizer, adulterer and ruthless businessman, the court of public opinion finds him guilty.  Millius’s wife, Lana Raines-Millius reaches out to Dillard having learned of his flawless reputation as a defense attorney.  But Joe soon learns there’s no love in the Millius’s marriage.  Lana’s hope is for her husband to be imprisoned for life or worse, be sentenced to death.  Joe wonders if he was hired for his legal skill or his country bumpkin stature.

 

As conspiracy theories begin to emerge, Joe suspects Lana may be behind Kasey’s murder and Paul may have been slated to die in that hotel room as well.  Proving that may be Paul’s best defense and the legal challenge of Joe’s life.  Getting the judge to allow evidence for his ‘some other dude done it’ defense requires legal maneuvering.  And collecting that evidence proves extremely dangerous.  Not only is Joe’s reputation as a lawyer on the line but his life as well.

In A Crime of Passion Joe’s career as a lawyer evolves to yet another level of disenchantment.  In previous books he begins his career as a defense attorney and grows tired of representing drug dealers, rapists and murderers.  He switches sides and becomes a prosecutor only to find the dirty politics and lack of ethical standards of his coworkers unbearable.  He moves back to the defense side, opens his own practice, and attempts to carefully choose his clients but finds he can’t be too discriminating and still make a living.  So the author presents an interesting but popular view on the life of a lawyer.  Can our highly principled, squeaky clean protagonist survive in such a corrupt environment?  Personally, I can’t wait for his next installment to see.

Blood Money by Scott Pratt

In Pratt’s sixth Joe Dillard legal thriller, he introduces Charleston (Charlie) Story a young country girl lawyer, who becomes Joe’s associate.  Charlie brings with her a client, Roscoe Barnes whose son, Zane is trying to prove him mentally insane.  Zane has learned that his great grandfather back during prohibition hid some gold bars on his rocky, mountainous property that belonged to a Philadelphia gangster.  Both old man Barnes and the gangster die before they can retrieve the gold now thought to be worth over fifty million dollars.  Zane’s real estate development business is in trouble and he’s keen on the gold baling him out.  Problem is Zane and his dad, Roscoe don’t get along so Zane is petitioning the courts to commit Roscoe to a mental institution.  Roscoe has hired Charlie his neighbor and family friend to represent him.  On the day of his hearing, Roscoe takes a dive head first off the courthouse roof.  His will leaves his 500 acre property including the gold to Charlie.  Attached to the will is a map pinpointing the location of the hidden treasure.  The publicity brought on by the gold gets back to the Philly gangster’s ruthless and greedy descendants.  So Charlie is caught in an ethical dilemma and legal battle as well as in a web of danger and intrigue.

Meanwhile Joe is representing Jordan Scott, a young black man who shot and killed a white police officer who was attempting to rape Jordan’s girlfriend.  Scott has proof that the policeman is a rapist but the cop’s political connections kept him from being arrested.  Scott caught the officer in the act and shot him as he ran away.  Since Scott shot the officer as he was retreating, the district attorney is pressing charges.  Joe has his hands full as he prepares for trial while advising Charlie and caring for his ailing wife Caroline.

I continue to be impressed with this author.  His characters are imperfect but likable.  His plots are complex but plausible and his pace exhilarates the reading experience.  Scott Pratt is quickly moving toward my top ten list.  

Conflict of Interest by Scott Pratt

Conflict of Interest is Scott Pratt’s fifth book in his Joe Dillard series.  Dillard is a frustrated lawyer with very high ideals.  He tried criminal defense and detested the violent criminals he had to represent.  He tried being an assistant D.A. and abhorred the politics and corruption.  Then as District Attorney of a four county district in east Tennessee, he hated the administrative responsibilities and the politics were just at a higher level.

 

Now he’s back to being a defense attorney but tries to be more discriminating in accepting clients.  So when six year old Lindsay Monroe is kidnapped from her wealthy family’s home, the child’s parents Richard and Mary Monroe decide they need legal representation and Joe accepts them as clients.  Too many of the questions hurled at the Monroe’s by law enforcement implicate them as suspects and they feel they need legal advice to avoid scrutiny.

As Joe is meeting with the Monroe’s in their first interview, Richard’s cell phone rings and ransom demands are spelled out by the kidnapper.  Mary’s father, Charles Russell owns a global security company and takes control of the situation, excluding the authorities per the kidnapper’s instructions.  Joe is tapped as the drop man and delivers three million dollars of Russell’s money to a garbage can in a deserted park as Russell’s security people watch from afar.  No one shows up to retrieve the cash and they discover the garbage can has a false bottom and an underground tube to collect the cash without detection.  So they all end up looking foolish and Lindsay is still missing.

Sure enough as law enforcement searches for the kidnapper, Richard becomes their prime suspect.  His company is having some legal/ financial problems and therefore Richard has motive to scalp Mary’s father for the cash.  Further, Joe learns of some problems with Richard and Mary’s marriage and when Richard is arrested, Joe can no longer represent both husband and wife… a clear conflict of interest.  Mary then files for divorce from Richard and freezes his bank accounts and a judge rules that Joe has a conflict representing even Richard.  So Richard is stuck with no funds to hire a new lawyer and the police have stopped investigating any other suspects.  Joe finds that Richard has some enemies who would benefit from his demise.  But with little or no support from the police and no longer Richard’s lawyer, Joe has to go it alone if Richard is to be vindicated and little Lindsay is to be found.  Meanwhile, Joe is dealing with a plethora of personal problems.  Caroline’s cancer is back, his long lost father shows up and asks for forgiveness, and his sister continues to battle drug and alcohol addiction.

I continue to be impressed with the works of Scott Pratt.  He tells a plausible and suspenseful tale, all the while further developing his idealistic, unlikely hero- protagonist Joe Dillard.  Pratt is the best new author I’ve found this year.

Reasonable Fear by Scott Pratt

Joe Dillard has never been satisfied in his career as a lawyer.  First, he was a successful defense attorney but despised representing dangerous drug dealers and murderers who paid him with dirty money.  He then moved to the other side and became Assistant District Attorney over a four county area in east Tennessee but found those in power to be just as shady and unethical as his former clients.  He then was appointed District Attorney by the governor but soon found he didn’t enjoy the administrative functions of his job or the politics.

Then the bodies of three young women are found in a nearby lake.  They are identified as strippers who had worked at a local bar owned by a former client of Joe’s.  Information obtained from witnesses incriminates wealthy Nashville businessman, John Lipscomb, his brother Nelson and his lawyer.  The governor personally calls Dillard and tells him to stop investigating Lipscomb, one of the governor’s most generous supporters.  When all law enforcement including the FBI refuse to help, Sheriff Leon Bates continues the investigation.  Joe calls a grand jury and presents the evidence against Lipscomb and his cohorts and issues warrants for their arrests.    He learns during the investigation that Lipscomb and his lawyer have long term ties to the Columbian drug trade that uses violence to manipulate every situation. The following morning the bodies of Dillard’s two prime witnesses are dumped in his driveway.  They have been tortured and brutally murdered.

Joe suddenly realizes the lives of everyone he loves are in danger and no one in law enforcement will help him.  He puts his family in a rented van and drives them to a reclusive farm in Michigan owned by an old army buddy.  On the long drive back to Tennessee, Joe realizes his only way out might be to murder Lipscomb.  Could he put his respect for the law and strong code of ethics aside to save his family?  Could he rekindle his military training to kill or be killed?  Did he have the courage and skill to face known assassins?

Reasonable Fear is another winner from Scott Pratt.  The protagonist, Joe Dillard is an ordinary Joe placed in extraordinary circumstances… imperfect and likable with a strong code.  The plot is dynamic, plausible and suspenseful… good stuff!  Now on to the next installment.

Injustice for All by Scott Pratt

Attorney Joe Dillard spent much of his career as a defense lawyer representing drug dealers and murderers who were dangerous and almost always guilty.  Miserable in that profession he has now the made the move to the prosecutor’s office in Johnson City, Tennessee only to be disappointed by the corruption that takes place on that side of the law.  His boss, D.A. Lee Mooney is a womanizer and alcoholic and allows politics to enter into too many decisions to suit Joe.  Judge Green’s abuse of power has ruined the career of Joe’s lawyer friend, Ray Miller.  Ray becomes so disgruntled by the judge’s ridiculously unfair charges that the lawyer commits suicide in the courtroom after Judge Green rules against him.  Later that night, Judge Green is brutally murdered at his home and his body is set afire.  Joe prays that Ray’s college age son and friend of Joe’s son is not responsible.  Joe soon learns that Ray’s son was on a drinking binge that night and ended up at Joe’s house to sleep it off.  Joe’s wife warns the boy’s mother to tell her son to disappear for a while.  To top it off, Joe’s wife is recovering from breast cancer and the physical and psychological effects of a mastectomy.

So here’s Joe with a load of personal problems on his shoulders and his boss, Mooney tells him to check on a young woman employee of the D.A.’s office, Katie Dean who had not showed up for work.  Joe goes to Katie’s home, finds her door left unlocked with her car in the driveway and she is nowhere to be found.  Turns out Katie is in the witness protection program for ratting out a Mexican drug lord.  Her Aunt Mary and Mary’s M.S. stricken son were murdered and burned in their home for the tip to the DEA.  Joe calls in the sheriff and he finds Katie’s body.  An autopsy reveals that Katie was pregnant… Katie pregnant after less than a month earlier telling friends that she was a virgin.  With so much marijuana being grown in the mountains of east Tennessee which attracts so many dangerous characters loaded with money, Joe begins to wonder if the murders could all be connected and if people in law enforcement could be involved.  But who can he trust and what will it mean for him and his family to find out?

This is another winner from self-published author Scott Pratt.  Multiple plots juggled expertly and linked together in the end, the suspense moves from one story line to the next.  The characters are believable and likable but not perfect… the right combination for an effective protagonist.  You can’t help but compare Pratt to a young Grisham or Turow… good stuff.  

An Innocent Client by Scott Pratt

Joe Dillard is a criminal defense attorney in a small town in East Tennessee.  He has a great wife and two normal kids but he’s just not happy.  His sister is a drug addict whom he has enabled too many times.  His mother has Alzheimer's and is failing fast.  Plus he hates his chosen profession.  His clients are the dregs of the earth, usually violent drug dealers and/or murderers who are arrested because they are guilty.  Dillard doesn’t go looking for these clients, the court appoints him to them because he is very good at criminal law and no one else wants to represent them.  Consequently, everyone associated with law enforcement which constitute most people he knows, hate him.  And what’s worse, Joe hates himself for helping these criminals get an undeserved break.  So on Joe’s birthday just before he blows out the candles on his cake, he wishes for just one innocent client.

The next day the body of a preacher, John Paul Tester is found in a local hotel room… he’s been stabbed numerous times and his penis is severed.  Special Agent Phillip Landers is called to investigate.  Landers surmises a sexually motivated killing and starts by visiting the local strip club.  Erlene Barlowe, the club owner denies ever seeing Tester but Landers finds that the preacher withdrew two hundred dollars from an ATM at the club the night of the murder.  Landers questions Barlowe’s employees and finds the preacher had groped the young attractive waitress, Angel Christian and that Angel and Erlene had left the club shortly after Tester.  Landers collects other evidence that leads to the arrest of Angel.

Erlene has taken Angel under her wing (pardon the pun) because she reminds Erlene of her beloved now deceased step daughter.   Barlowe has made good money from her business at the strip club so she hires Joe to represent Angel and pays him handsomely.  Joe soon realizes he may have his wished for innocent client and may be able to move on to a more honorable profession with the fee from this case.  But Joe’s life just cannot be that simple.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this legal mystery and feel like I’ve discovered a new author, Scott Pratt for my cache.  The protagonist is real and flawed enough to be likable… the plot interesting and believable.  Pratt puts me in mind of a young Grisham or Turow.  I plan to read more.