REVIEW OF THE WEEK: High Crimes

High Crimes is an excellent legal thriller! If you liked the movie “A Few Good Men,” you will LOVE the courtroom intrigue of this military thriller. After being married for three years, Claire Chapman, a highly regarded legal scholar, discovers that her husband isn’t who she thought he was.  After a failed but action-packed attempt to capture him, the FBI tell her that his name isn’t even Tom Chapman, but Ron Kubick, an AWOL Special Forces commando. Kubick is AWOL and a wanted mass murder.  As he tells it, during a top-secret mission in El Salvador thirteen years ago, the commander in charge, now a high-ranking General, ordered the killing of 87 unarmed inhabitants, and he refused to take part. Since he wouldn’t go along with the slaughter, the General made him the scapegoat. When Kubick is inevitably incarcerated, Claire defends him in military court.  And yet the prosecution has strong evidence that he acted alone and sadistically enjoyed killing people. Hidden microphones, identical sworn statements, and threats against her life all point to a military conspiracy. She can’t fathom why the government is so eager to frame her husband. As the evidence mounts, it will take all of her legal expertise to save him from a death sentence. With your heart thumping out of your chest, author Joseph Finder throws curve balls and twists until you finally reach the satisfying conclusion.

I’m glad that I finally read one of Joseph Finder’s thrillers.  For years, I’ve heard he’s the very best.  Now I’m a believer.  Next time, I’ll try his popular and highly-acclaimed Paranoia.