Legal, Thriller

In Violent Ward, Len Deighton, the author of bestselling international thrillers, has created a lively and entertaining new character, Mickey Murphy, a criminal lawyer working in Los Angeles. A subversive and abrasive tightwad whose gripes will make readers cheer, Mickey has a house in Woodland Hills, an office in a seedy downtown neighborhood, a Hollywood-bound ex-wife who always needs money, and clients who would plead the Fifth Amendment if they could count that high. Devious and resourceful, when he finds himself being grilled as a suspect for a brutal murder, he goes into high gear. Mickey seeks the answers from one of his clients who can count very well, self-made millionaire and street-smart entrepreneur Zach Petrovitch, who travels in his private jet accompanied by his tough security chief to make shady deals throughout the world. But Petrovitch's wife, Ingrid, is Mickey's childhood sweetheart, and trouble looms when Mickey finds he is still carrying the torch.