European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 1, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Lawyer thriller a firm theme with Loose character by Jocelyn Mcclurg the Hartford courant Ohn Grisham a the firm a novel about crooked lawyers has made an impressive March up the Best seller list. But readers hungry for the next presumed innocent or the Burden of proof should adjust their expectations Grisham owes a greater debt to Robert Ludlum than Scott Turow. The firm $14.95 at stars and stripes bookstores begins promisingly. Mitchell y. My Deere a Harvard Law review top five in class College football Star a is being wooed by Wall Street and by an unlikely Little tax Law firm from Memphis. Bending Lambert amp Locke is dangling tempting carrots before Mitch $80,000 to Start plus bonuses a Bow Gratis a Low interest mortgage vacations at the firms condos in grand Cayman. All Mitch has to do is work his Tail off and please the firms International clientele of the very Rich who want to keep their tax Bills to a minimum. Milch who is supposed to be of so Bright is a tiny bit troubled by the firms Lack of Blacks and women they had one but she conveniently died in a car wreck and the partners emphasis on squeaky clean lawyers who neither drink play around nor skip Church on sundays. They prefer wives who done to work and who go Forth and multiply. A we want stable families. Happy lawyers Are productive lawyers a a one partner tells Mitch. And then there a the reassurance that no lawyer has Ever left the firm unless he has had the misfortune of dying before retiring As a millionaire. Which two do a blown to bits on a boat in the Cayman a on the Day Mitch and his Beautiful Wile arrive in Memphis to Start their new dream life. A tragic Accident Mitch a a poor Kentucky boy who grew up on the wrong Side of the tracks a is eager to prove himself at the firm. He a soon putting in 80-hour weeks and getting Home Loo late and tuckered out for the aerobatic sex he and his wife Abby seem to otherwise engage in every six pages. These Early chapters when Mitch is struggling to juggle his overwhelming workload and other losses bombs allies treatment of pow by Karen Stabler los Angeles times other Lussos. By James Bacque. $ 19.9.x at stars and stripes bookstores. Traditionally the winners in War get to define the history of the conflict. I Liis was certainly True alter world War ii it there were questions study for the bar and is slowly becoming suspicious of strange goings on at the firm Are the Best in the Book. But then the mystery evolves into a thriller and character development gives Way to plot machinations. Milch is approached by an Fri agent Wayne tarrance who tells him his Home is bugged and that the firm is involved in Shady dealings. Eventually the head of the Fri meets with the reluctant Mitch begging for his a inside Quot assistance in proving that bending Lambert amp Locke is working for the mob Mitch feels trapped. The most the Fri can offer him is Cash and Refuge in the Federal witness Protection program. The second half of the novel is devoted to Mitch a Clever plan to cooperate with the Fri on his own terms. Grisham a defense attorney in Mississippi constructs this intricate scheme with a Sharp Legal mind. The firm has colourful characters and Grisham has clearly mastered the thriller formula although the novel becomes less and less believable As the soundtrack yes you can hear it in the background gets louder and louder. And Mitch despite his Good looks and brains is a stiff and a bore a cardboard super hero. He makes Turows Rusty Sabich and Sandy Stern look like characters out of Dostoevski. Raised about behaviour on the part of the Allied forces the bombing of Dresden the use of the atom bomb they have been downplayed when placed next to the atrocities of nazi Germany. Author Bacque claims that the allies specifically Gen. Dwight d. Eisenhower supreme commander in the european theater at the end of the War did worse they refused to feed or adequately House German prisoners of War during that first Winter causing Many of them to die. In Advance of the Hook s publication these shocking charges have been rebutted by other historians and retired military personnel who served under Eisenhower. But they have conceded that with a shortage of food the military1 cared for civilians first and gave what was left to he uniformed men they had captured. The truth seems to exist somewhere in  measures sociopaths plot to kill his wife by Judith Haynes Hochberg Hartford courant though he a not tall and handsome like Ted Bundy David Arnold Brown is Ann rules kind of Guy a Sociopath. Rule a former policewoman embarked on a life of True crime writing after her acquaintanceship with serial killer Bundy inspired her Book the stranger beside me. The Story of computer expert David Arnold Brown is her seventh homicide Book if you really loved me a True Story of desire and murder i 15.95 at stars and stripes bookstores Long one it is 493 pages to sort out a single killing. Speed read through the first 200 pages and you can avoid the annoying asides a Only those who know the Orange county courthouse intimately Are aware of the hidden Little Jungle that flourishes there. Outside the ground floor of the Days office wild rabbits skitter through the underbrush. Quot and get to the Good stuff. It is not until chapter 24 that cinnamon Brown in jail for More than three years after the shooting death of her 23-year-old Stepmother when cinnamon was Only 14, begins to spill the Beans. Linda Marie Brown was shot to death while she slept in her bed in Garden Grove calif., in 1985. The twisted Story of her murder was told earlier this year in the Abc miniseries love lies and murder. A if you love me you la Trust me a cinnamon says Brown told her before the killing. A a in a your father. I know what a  it seems he just did no to have the stomach to eliminate his Young wife the Mother of his 8-month-old baby. So he enlisted cinnamon and a his wife s 17-Ycar-old sister Patti who lived with the family and who we later discover had been a sex partner of Brown s since she was 11. Rules writing style she is also the author of Small sacrifices is not compelling. But she sure knows How to pick Mem. What fascinates the Reader is Brown himself quoted by the jailed cinnamon and by the disillusioned Patti who married Brown secretly and bore him yet another daughter after patties sister was killed. Cinnamon reports that it was dad who persuaded her to write the note and take the overdose of pills after the killing to a fake Quot a suicide. If both his wife and his teen age daughter had died that night Brown would have collected $1,239,876 in insurance. As it was he got Only $843,626. Dad also wanted cinnamon to fire the murder weapon and Nick herself in the head with a Bullet but she somehow found the courage to decline. The piece do resistance is Brown trying to finagle cinnamon to continue covering up his role in the killing. But cinnamon is wearing a recording device in an Effort to get enough evidence to reopen her Case. He offers to betray Patti still living with him As his wife a she can take the blame for it. Cause she does no to have anybody. All she s got is their daughter  cinnamon asks Why he had a relationship with Patti when Patti depended on him As though he were her own father a a. Fathers do it with their daughters its very common. It does no to make any difference. Who very a  sunday september 1, 1991