A Killer’s Alibi (Philadelphia Legal #3) by William L. Myers Jr ~ Legal Thriller #NetGalley @williammyersjr #AKillersAlibi

Author: William L. Myers Jr

Published: February 2019 by Thomas & Mercer

Category: Legal Thriller, Crime, Fiction, Book Review

When crime lord Jimmy Nunzio is caught, knife in hand, over the body of his daughter’s lover and his own archenemy, he turns to Mick McFarland to take up his defense. Usually the courtroom puppeteer, McFarland quickly finds himself at the end of Nunzio’s strings. Struggling to find grounds for a not-guilty verdict on behalf of a well-known killer, Mick is hamstrung by Nunzio’s refusal to tell him what really happened.

The story opens with a shocking prologue as twelve year old Jimmy Nunzio is  initiated into the family ‘firm.’ Twenty some years later mob boss, Jimmy Nunzio is caught knife in hand and covered in blood, a body at his feet and his daughter weeping over her dead boyfriend.

Mick McFarland is hired to represent Nunzio as his defence counsel and, although he has mixed feelings, after talking to his client he feels pressured to accept despite the fact Nunzio refuses to explain what actually happened. 

“There’s one thing I will tell you about last night,” Nunzio says. “The reason I went to that building is that I received a call on my cell phone. I was in my office at the Naval Yard, and someone called and told me that my daughter was about to be killed at the Valiante family’s heroin warehouse.”

Running alongside the Nunzio trial is another separate case taken on by Mick’s wife, Piper, and his law firm partner Susan Klein. They are working on innocence cases—trying to get a retrial for people who they believe are wrongly imprisoned. Darlene Dowd was convicted fifteen years ago, when she was nineteen, of murdering her sexually abusive father. Now a deathbed letter from Darlene’s mother could help prove her innocence. A witness had come forward at the time with information that would help to prove Darlene couldn’t have committed the crime, but had been scared off by the then police chief.

“Okay,” Mick says, aware that a law enforcement officer’s hiding of potentially exculpatory evidence is a major malfeasance, often justifying a retrial. 

Parallels run through both cases, namely the relationships between fathers and daughters, although the actual events bear no resemblance to each other. Throughout the two threads, believable as they are, nothing is quite as it seems with a twisty storyline ensuring the reader is kept guessing along with Mick.

Although this is the third book in the series, for the most part it can be read as a standalone. There are certain references to events in the previous books which play a small part in the overall story; they did leave me wondering what had happened and how much impact they had on the present as the characters themselves still seem to be dealing with the fallout. 

A Killer’s Alibi is extremely well written with great characterisations and attention to detail, as well as brilliant courtroom scenes. The fact that Mick is kept more or less in the dark along with the reader adds to the tension and uncertainty of what really happened that night in the warehouse and how events will unfold. A terrific legal thriller … and I need to add the first two books to my list.

I chose to read and review A Killer’s Alibi courtesy of a digital copy of the book kindly supplied by the author via NetGalley.

Book links ~ Amazon UK | Amazon US

About the Author

Born in 1958 into a blue-collar family, Mr. Myers inherited a work-ethic that propelled him through college and into the Ivy League at The University of Pennsylvania School of Law. From there, Mr. Myers started his legal career in a Philadelphia-based mega defense firm. After ten years defending corporate America, he realized his heart wasn’t in it. So, with his career on the fast track to success–he gave it all up and started his own firm. It was time to start fighting for the common guy.
That was twenty-five years ago and since then, he has focused on representing railroad employees and other honest, hard-working people who have been injured by others. He has represented thousands of clients in his tenure and has become a highly-regarded litigation attorney up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Author links ~ Website | Twitter | Facebook