The Legacy (Joseph Antonelli Series #4) Book

Author D.W. Buffa is a former defense attorney and, not surprisingly, he is at his best in the courtroom. The courtroom scenes in "The Legacy" are riveting, with an interesting behind-the-scenes look at those moments in a criminal trial that the general public seldom sees, like the private conversations between the judge and the attorneys in the judge's chambers, and the interaction between the prosecutor and defense attorney during tense moments of the trial, which the author describes as only somebody who has "been there" can possibly do.

The author's skillful use of setting enhances the plot and the mood of the story. Buffa's San Franciso is not the romantic city of rolling hills, cable cars, and the Golden Gate Bridge that most tourists see, but a city where greedy, power-hungry politicians will stop at nothing---including the framing of an innocent man for murder---to help them get ahead in a city (and state) of ruthless ambition. The city figures so prominently in every scene that it is almost like an additional character.

The skillful use of setting and fast-paced courtroom scenes make for some interesting reading, and I wish I could say the same for the rest of the novel.

The story gets off to a slow start, with long tedious blocks of dialogue which, in my opinion, could have been compressed or broken up with blocks of exposition to make things move a little faster. Not to sound like a writing instructor---especially with a novelist as accomplished as Buffa---but pacing is everything in a novel of this genre, and overly long blocks of description, dialogue, or exposition slow down the action and kill the suspense. The Andrei Bogdonovich story line was confusing to me. It was almost as if this character were thrown in as an afterthought to help pull some of the other story lines together.

Fortunately the pace picks up when the action shifts to the courtroom, where the author is clearly in his own element, and the suspense builds until the surprises at the end.