Undue Influence by Steve Martini

In my recent review of Martini’s latest, Blood Flag, I quipped that I remembered the author’s earlier work as greater stuff so I vowed to re-read something the author wrote earlier to prove my point if only to myself.  Undue Influence is Steve Martini’s third in his Paul Madriani series and was written in the mid 1990’s.  This is the caliber of writing I remember and the author I once revered.  A courtroom drama filled with suspense, quick witted lawyering and a drive to save the client at all costs.

Paul’s wife Nikki has recently passed and he is left to raise a young daughter alone.  His only living relatives are Nikki’s sister Laurel and her two teenage children.  Laurel divorced her unfaithful husband, Jack the state legislator in a bitter battle.  The battle continues over the children even though Jack has married one of his young conquests, Melanie.  Laurel blames Melanie for Jack’s tenacity in gaining custody of the children and assaults Jack’s new wife just outside the courtroom after a particularly ugly custody hearing.  That night Melanie is murdered in her home and Laurel is arrested.  Madriani, out of loyalty to his dead wife’s family, agrees to provide the legal defense.  But Paul soon finds out, Jack is under investigation by the FBI for shenanigans he’s pulled as a legislator.  Dana, the lovely assistant AG and former classmate of Paul’s, enlightens him on Jack’s illicit behavior.  As Paul and Dana’s relationship grows more intimate, Paul discovers Dana knows more about Melanie’s murder than she’s telling him.  She has been monitoring a woman in the Federal witness relocation program that lives across the street from Jack and Melanie.  Could it be that Melanie was mistaken for the relocated witness and murdered by mistake?  The woman has mysteriously disappeared and Paul must find her to prove his theory.  But the trial has already begun and he needs to use all his skills to proffer a solid defense… all the while, not knowing who he can trust and who wants him to stop.

Undue Influence is a great legal thriller complete with plot complexity and surprising twists and turns.  Martini clearly has the experience and insight for stimulating courtroom drama.  His talent is far better expressed here than in his later national conspiracy theory plots of terrorism and destruction.