The Rule of Nine By Steve Martini HarperLuxe, 2010, 576 pages ISBN: 978-0061979286 Genre: Thriller

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - February 7, 2011

Interesting characters with strong personalities fill this drama. They are involved in suspenseful activities that draw readers' attention, and are not clarified until the book ends. There is Senator Root, for example, who unbeknown to all was once a Weatherman, a terrorists, who quit and became a politician after he and other Weathermen blew up a bank and accidently killed a man they did not know was in the building. He is being blackmailed for millions by a person who identifies himself as the Old Weatherman. Root has billions of dollars that he received while in office as bribes, but does not want to pay the mystery man any more money. What will he do? Who is the Old Weatherman? What is he really after?

Root's friend is on the Supreme Court. Root tries to persuade him to retire. He says that he is doing so to assure that the court will be comprised of people with the proper political outlook. But is this true? Why does he want his friend to resign? Does Root's request have anything to with his past?

A twenty-three year old naive congressional gopher is seduced to allow a man entry into an area of the congressional building closed to the public. The boy is later murdered by an overdose of dope with an attempt to make it appear like suicide. Why is he killed? His father, a lawyer, investigates and is himself killed by strangulation, in an apparent suicide.

Paul Madriani, a lawyer, is the hero of this tale. He and his partner and investigator, were involved in a near atomic bomb detonation in the US. The government wants to cover up the attempt so as not to frighten the public. He becomes involved in the above-mentioned murders. There is also a very attractive girl who attaches herself to Madriani. She has a source that reveals information to her. Is she on Madriani's side or with the criminals?

There are two vicious killers. One did the above mentioned murders. He has a vendetta against Madriani and kills a friend of Madriani's daughter to frighten him. He decides to kill his daughter also. The other killer, his apparent boss, is involved in securing a weapon to blow up something in the US. Who is the boss's boss? What is the plan? Can it be stopped?

• Santa Fe Edge, by Stuart Woods.
  Santa Fe attorney Ed Eagle is hired by a golf pro, Tip Hanks, who is under suspicion for the murder of his wife. Meanwhile Ed's nefarious ex-wife, Barbara, escapes from a Mexican prison and heads to Santa Fe, obsessed with her mission to kill her former husband.
  
  
• The Reversal, by Michael Connelly.
  Longtime defense attorney Mickey Haller is recruited to change stripes and prosecute the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. Haller takes the case on the condition that he gets to choose his investigator, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch.