Above the Law

Luke Garrison #2

by J.F. Freedman

While investigating a high-profile case involving the death of a leader of a notorious drug-dealing gang, California D.A. Nora Ray begins to think that there are political forces trying to cover up the truth of what really took place. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Legal Thriller, Legal, Mystery Thriller

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

J.F. Freedman is the New York Times bestselling author of Against the Wind, The Disappearance, House of Smoke, and In My Dark Dreams, among other titles. He is also an award-winning film and television director, writer, and producer. He lives in California.

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best laid plans of semi-retired attorneys gang aft agley!

Luke Garrison, formerly a high profile prosecuting attorney, now married with a son he positively dotes upon, has chosen "the road less traveled" - a low profile, low business defense practice in Santa Barbara, California, that allows him to comfortably balance a rewarding work life with a very happy marriage and home life.

Then Nora Ray Sherman, an old friend from law school days who is now the prosecutor in dirt poor Muir County in northern California, tells Garrison the story of a DEA raid gone violently awry. The raid had been planned with military precision - scoop a multi-million dollar shipment of drugs as the delivering plane lands on a private runway; whisk the DEA informant safely away under the very noses of the gang members; and arrest Reynaldo Juarez, the shadowy drug czar who has managed to avoid the clutches of the DEA for years. Most important of all is the over-riding mission order that Juarez must, at all costs, be brought in alive.

When the gang ambushes the raiding officers with more firepower than a Desert Storm battalion, it is clear that the DEA has been double crossed. Several DEA agents are killed in the ensuing fire fight and, after the dust has settled, Juarez is assassinated under the very eyes of Sterling Jerome, the DEA agent in charge of the stupendously botched raid.

But by whom? That's the question that Nora Ray Sherman asks Garrison to determine as she arranges for his appointment by the California Attorney General as the attorney in charge of the investigation into Juarez's murder.

ABOVE THE LAW is a thrilling legal procedural that tells the story of a very believable and very topical high profile drug case and murder from start to finish. A complex plot is revealed in the context of a most satisfying legal procedural that wends its way through basic investigation to indictment by the grand jury and ultimately to a final surprising conclusion during the actual trial. The story is peopled by a strong cast of well-developed characters and entirely credible dialogue that flows easily and convincingly.

ABOVE THE LAW is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that definitely deserves your time. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

[James Deckert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Case was purely circumstantial. But I guess it's much easier to come up with a "shocker surprise" ending if the case is not based on fact. Some of the "logic" leaps the author made, didn't convince me. ** spoiler ** Do you let the person who did the murder (who you know owns guns), go into their bedroom to change clothes unescorted? Possible outcomes of this are 1. Peaceful surrender (unlikely), 2. Suicide, 3. Escape out the window (happened earlier in the book) 4. Comes out of the bedroom shooting.

I don't think I'll be reading any more of this "NY Times Bestselling Author"

BTW: The book has 3 typos and 1 mistake in continuity. It's not really a lot, but I don't normally see this in mass market books.

[Vincent Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it in one sitting. Nora Ray, a DA in northern California, has just been called upon to investigate a recent police killing , which she believes may be a government cover-up, and she calls in Special Prosecutor and old friend Luke Garrison to help her find out. The case centers around a high-profile raid conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, in which one of the biggest drug-dealing gangs in the country is uncovered and its notoriously reclusive leader, Reyaldo Juarez, is shot and killied—despite direct orders from the U.S. Attorney General to take him alive at any cost and detain him as a possible witness in other drug cases…

[Tymur · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book would be much better if it were shorter.

[Donna McPherson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed book # 1 of the series better. This one seemed a little long to me. But it was entertaining nonetheless.

[Maryellen Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as some of his other books. A lot of agencies involved with this drug investigation. Found it a little slow.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

JF Freedman books are always a good read and this one, was a lot of twist and turns to the point you didn't know who the convict was till the end :-)

[Robbie Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unnecessary part 1. Semi-predicted ending

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent page turner of a legal thriller. Falls a bit short for me despite the authors ability to draw the reader in. Why? The first section of the book is almost a stand alone novella, that the author uses to push his hero into taking a job investigating and prosecuting a DEA agent supposedly gone rogue. Some neat twists thrown in and very good timing, but the opening novella, interesting as it was just a bit too tangential for me. So unrelated as to be almost a waste of the reader's time and effort.

The sexual tension between former college classmate Nora and our hero, Luke, is interesting until the author makes Nora into a mental case with a seriously twisted approach that would have had a male in custody and on the sex criminal listing for life. Over the top, in my opinion

Finally, if you as a reader can't figure this mystery out long before the end you'd better give up reading mysteries. Very predictable. Very.

Still, the author deserves kudos for holding my interest long after I figured out whodunnit in this particular whodunnit.

[Roland · Rating 4 out of 5]

too long

[Lori Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great legal thriller, but drawn out a bit too much for my tastes.

[Susan Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Federal agents prepare to storm the Northern California hide-a-way of a drug lord. Little goes right and attorney Luke Garrison is hired as a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of the fiasco. This story starts out rather slowly but grows on you. I read it over several days and found, that when I wasn't reading it, I was wondering about what would happen next when I got back to it. This, to me, is the true mark of a good book.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really thought it was an excellent story. When I got to the part about Diane in college and her boyfriend and pregnancy, I got REALLY into the story and couldn't read it fast enough. There were so many twists and turns but WOW, what a story. This is a story of big profits from drug money and how it affected so many people. Good people lost their way and did horrible things.

[DiegoM8A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book with a lot of real twist and turns that have you on your feet. This book is a great one for people who like heart stopping tails and sinister plots. This book is not for the faint of stomachs.

[Deepak Dewan · Rating 1 out of 5]

By sheer persistent I finished this book. Author seem to have lost idea how to keep the book moving forward so he conjures up sub-plots sub stories Had never read any book so boring in my life. I finished this all because my habit is to finish once I et started.

[Dana Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time reading this author.

I enjoyed it. The action was pretty steady and it kept my attention- even during the background parts .

I have to admit I guessed one of the culprits early on but not the whole story.

[Stephen Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another in the legal thriller series comparison I am doing. Interesting plot and moves at truly readable pace. Rate

[Gail Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent mystery, many twist & turns.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as the first book "The Disappearance". This book had a lot of spelling errors and grammatical errors it was distracting to read.

[Angela]

A drug bust gone bad in a small rural town brings a famous lawyer to solve the crime. Unbelievable twists and turns happen along the way.
GOOD/EXCELLENT

[Eric_W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luke Garrison is a former district attorney of Santa Barbara County, California. He’s also a hero, having saved a group of stranded travelers from two desperadoes during the middle of a sandstorm. He’s now in private practice, having renounced prosecutorial duties to become a defense attorney after having prosecuted, and sent to the gas chamber, an innocent man. Nora, the widow of an old friend, and now state’s attorney in a rural northern California county, pleaded with Luke to accept the role of special prosecutor in a difficult case. A recent DEA attack on a drug lord’s compound went seriously awry. The drug lord, Caesar Juarez, has been killed, after he had been taken into custody only to be shot after having escaped handcuffs and being locked in the DEA’s command center at the site of the raid. Nora and Tom Miller, the county sheriff and ex-FBI agent, believe the DEA’s investigation of the matter to be seriously flawed, so they want an outside investigation. Reluctantly, Luke agrees. His efforts are sidetracked as Nora repeatedly comes on to him, despite his staunch refusal to succumb. He hires a staff, and soon evidence is uncovered, with the help of Sheriff Miller, that implicates the lead agent, Sterling Jerome, of the attack on the compound. It seems, Sterling’s sister had been in love with Juarez many years before. The idea that his sister might marry a Hispanic enraged the Jeromes and they beat Juarez within an inch of his life. Sterling had been after Juarez ever since, but this was unknown to the DEA. Other incriminating evidence appears, including a $500,000 wire transfer into Sterling’s Florida bank account. The case appears to be air-tight, but as the trial progresses, some bizarre facts emerge, dug up by one of Luke’s investigators. It seems, Miller and Nora both built very expensive houses at the same time that the drug lord’s compound was being built, and they all had the same architect. The source of the money to pay for their houses is very murky, and to complicate matters further, it appears Juarez may have been using a nearby Indian reservation to launder drug money. Luke is faced with the dilemma of how to handle exculpatory evidence in what seems to be a certain conviction. The trial scenes are great.

[Atlanta · Rating 5 out of 5]

NO SPOILERS ARE GIVEN
The plot was very complex. Yes, the book was pretty long, but i liked it and i wanted the book to have more...pages. It was very interesting, and i was drawn into the book after reading the first chapter. Actually, i picked this book up at a yard sale with a few other books for 2 dollars! Normally, i am not willing to read books like these- in other words, i judge books by the cover, but i read the title, and i thought, hm, this might be good. At the time i was really interested in becoming a lawyer, but now i want to go in to USAF, but the book is still very good. When i first started reading the book, i really did enjoy it...then i put the book down(i was about half way through the book) for about 6 months. Then i started to read it again, about a month ago, and i couldn't put it down! Overall, i give it 5 stars, because really, this book is written very well! However, this book isn't for everyone, if you are a good reader, and you like to be able to be challenged when reading, then this is the book for you!
P.S. I plan to read this book multiple more times!! :D

[Katherine Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book I would be quite happy to give 1 1/2 stars to. I will not be reading anymore books by this author. Nitpicky: the book was filled with commas splices and runons. I let it go because I figured best selling author, it is something he does, fine. (Though it hurt me to read). But man, this book was way way too long (like, cut 200 pages.) The females were annoying (though I think the author was trying hard to be egalitarian), and I figured out most of this way early on. The revelation was not exciting, and I didn't like the protag. I can't believe he is a bestselling writer. I'm actually stunned by that. Oh well. It took me months to finish it, and I really shouldn't have.

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out really slow for me. I agree with the one person who said that the first part of the book and the story that was told there was completely unnecessary and had nothing to do with the plot or character development later on. About 2/3rds of the way through the story picked up and I got a bit more interested. I enjoyed the ending...but it was sort of far-fetched. The last two of his books I've read have been disappointing so I might not read any more in the future of JF Freedman.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I read the flyleaf of this book it sounded really interesting it's a has lot of facets to it. But I have read two thirds of this book and still cannot get into it. Too many
Alphabet agencies, bad guys, drug gangs.. are the good guys the bad guys? In some instances this would make the book very interesting but this one has just left me bored. I got nearly halfway through it but still, it just doesn't seem worth it.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read many legal dramas in my time, but I found this one to be plenty exciting and interesting enough! It still had that element of a mystery because proving who was guilty was still a factor. The author led you in such a way that you could almost sense the twist coming, roughly around the same time the main character begins to catch on.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small Muir Cnty drug lord killing. Crooked DA Nora requests help

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book from Freedman. Luke is back in this one and escorts you thru a lot of twists and turns. Glad I started reading his books.

[Joe O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good; lawyer is brought in by old law school friend to assist her in solving case of killing of drug lord during DEA raid; at last minute, surprises turn case upside down.

[Mike Steely · Rating 2 out of 5]

Typical detective, easy read, fairly entertaining.