Defense

There are occasional echoes of Scott Turow and John Grisham in this debut thriller by Oregon lawyer D. W. Buffa, but for the most part his voice is as refreshingly original as the sinuous plot line. "I never lost a case I should have won, and I won nearly all the cases I should have lost," says the arrogant but undoubtedly gifted criminal defense lawyer Joseph Antonelli. When his friend and mentor, Judge Leopold Rifkin, asks him to defend Johnny Morel, a man accused of raping his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Antonelli agrees. Morel is obviously guilty, but aided by the girl's lying, amoral mother, Antonelli plants enough seeds of doubt to get the sleazeball off. Years later, after the girl has disappeared, the mother is shot to death--in Judge Rifkin's living room. Under Buffa's sly direction, these twists and turns add up to a wonderfully rich story.