Randy Singer Reviews

Page Three

Added October 27, 2006

The Cross Examination of Oliver Finney - Review 2

Author: Randy Singer
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Available At: Bookstores everywhere
Publishing Date: March 2006
Genre: Fiction: Christian/Suspense
Format: Trade Paper
Price: $13.99
ISBN: 1-4000-7166-6
Author Email/Website: www.randysinger.net
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

Randy Singer writes more than just page-turning legal thrillers. He is the kind of author who continually and fearlessly tackles controversial topics in his stories. Each book I've read is unique and daring, dangerous even, when it comes to writing about the "taboo" of social, political and religious subject matters. His latest, The Cross Examination of Oliver Finney, is, thankfully, no different.

The respected and Honorable Judge Oliver Finney is dying. As a last ditch effort to accomplish reaching people for Christ, he decides to partake in a new and outrageous reality television show, Faith on Trial. On this show, one person will be a representative of the top, various faiths. Finney has been selected to represent Christianity. And like Finney, each representative has been diagnosed with an incurable disease.

Contracts, secrecy and a tropical setting are the basic foundation for the show. Each contestant agrees to adhere to a laundry list of rules and regulations. The filmed activities, which test, tempt and challenge each contestant's faith, are then broadcast for the world to watch. Viewers then have the opportunity to call in and vote for their favorite "cast member". The winner at the end of the show will have thousands of dollars donated to the charity of their choice.

However, right from the get-go, Finney begins to suspect that nothing is what it seems. He uncovers a plot that puts the life of one of the contestants at risk-the problem is, Finney isn't sure which contestant is in danger. For all he knows, it could be he who is the target of a planned assignation.

Trapped on some undisclosed, remote island where personal cell phones, computers and a postal system are prohibited, Finney needs to become more creative than usual in order to orchestrate help from his beautiful assistant (a reoccurring, favorite character of mine in Singer books) Nikki Moreno, who is back on the mainland.

Ultimately, in a race against the clock, while corresponding through tricky, nearly impossible codes, Finney and Moreno must work toward unraveling a well thought out murder plot.

Reading Singer's latest book is like a behind the scenes tell-all of television's popular Survivor show. (Though I am sure nothing on Survivor is rigged, staged, or rehearsed, uh-hum). The tight-knit chapters, realistic, well crafted characters, and compelling story line are what I have come to expect and appreciate from Randy Singer, and in The Cross Examination of Oliver Finney, I was not let down in the least. Witty humor, detailed description and crisp dialogue fill the book, page after page. Once again, Singer has outdone himself, continuing to prove that he is one of the best legal thriller writers out there today!

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Added June 11, 2006

Irreparable Harm

Author: Randy Singer
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: May 2003
Genre: Fiction: Christian/Legal/Thriller
Format: Trade Paper
Price: $13.99
ISBN: 1-57856-634-7
Author Email/Website: www.randysinger.net
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

I love legal thrillers. Randy Singer writes some of the finest. The first book I read by him, Dying Declaration, made me realize just how much I enjoyed this talented author's writing style, but more than that, I understood that Singer is the type of competent (lawyer) author who is not afraid to tackle head-on some of today's most controversial topics.

In Irreparable Harm, Mitchell Taylor-a fresh-out-of-law-school attorney-is hunting for a job. He missed windows of opportunity to land a high paying position with many prestigious law firms and winds up working for a once great, but now seemingly washed up, noisy commercial making attorney known simply as The Rock.

Before he has a chance to hang his college degree on the wall in his new office, Taylor is baptized by fire into the world of practicing law. His caseload is immediately overwhelming, and his boss, the Rock, is of little help.

Then the Rock's daughter, Cameron and her husband, Dr. Nathan Brown, enter into a contract with a genetic company. Through vitro fertilization they impregnated an illegal alien, Maryna, with their child. At this point, Dr. Brown dies and legal problems come into play when it looks like the child inside Maryna's womb has Down syndrome. Cameron wants the baby aborted, and the remaining fertilized eggs to be used to attempt another successful pregnancy. However, due to contractual arrangements prior to the death of Cameron's husband, the remaining eggs will now belong to the genetic company for research purposes. Her claims are that the contract is no longer valid due to the baby's recently learned condition.

The donated eggs are special. They were created by means of cloning at a time when cloning was not outlawed by the Bioethics Act. The genetic company in possession of the fertilized eggs is not willing to risk the few eggs they have on vitro fertilization, since the odds against impregnating another host has the odds stacked against them.

Though Maryna knew the contract she signed contained a clause stating if anything was physically wrong with the fetus she would have to allow for an abortion, she realizes she loves the child growing inside of her and will not allow the baby to be killed. She will stand up and fight for the rights of her unborn child, even knowing that to do so causes her to risk deportation back to Cambodia. After seeing Taylor in a commercial, she knows that he may be the only attorney who can help her.

Maryna shares with Taylor not just stories about Cameron and the pregnancy, but with secrets about her past. Her exodus from Cambodia to the United States was not clear sailing. The notorious group that "sponsored" her illegal alien-ship to this free country expects additional payment by way of slavery for the costs incurred. They will stop at nothing until they have Maryna back in their possession. Against better judgment Taylor not only takes Maryna on as a client, he also helps her hide from the threats approaching her on all sides, and slowly broaches on the type of attorney client no-no that becomes impossibly unavoidable as falls in love with her.

Just jam-packed with tension and suspense, Irreparable Harm will have readers engrossed from the opening prologue until finishing the last line of epilogue. For a while John Grisham was the guru of legal thrillers. Not anymore. Randy Singer is a serious contender, and an entertaining, though provoking author!

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