Publisher's Weekly Review
In Hosp's strong third novel (after 2006's disappointing The Betrayed), Boston lawyer Scott Finn, the hero of Hosp's debut, Dark Harbor (2005), has resigned from his white-shoe law firm and gone into practice for himself, along with cop-turned-PI Tom Kozlowski and legal intern Lissa Krantz. Finn gets roped into the case of Vincente Salazar, an illegal El Salvador immigrant with gang ties who was convicted of shooting a policewoman. Salazar has spent 15 years in prison, but new DNA evidence might exonerate him. Finn bitches and moans about pro bono cases, but readers know that underneath his cynical shell lies an honest straight shooter who loves the law and will go to his grave defending it-which he nearly does as a host of bad guys set out to convince Finn it's unhealthy to reopen the Salazar case. Clever banter, interesting legalities and compelling characters put Hosp, an attorney who has worked on New England's Innocence Project, back in the running for a top spot in the Boston legal thriller stakes. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The 15-year incarceration of a Salvadoran doctor prompts legal action by scrappy Boston lawyer Scott Finn, back from Dark Harbor (2005). Whisked out of El Salvador during the 1980s revolution via his family's high-ranking connection to a Salvadoran gang in Boston, Vincente Salazar was convicted of shooting the INS officer in charge of his deportation case in 1992. But Mark Dobson, a do-good attorney for the New England Innocence Project, persuades high-profile courtroom dramatist Finn that there is a great deal of doubt surrounding the conviction. Fingerprints on the gun used to shoot young cop Madeline Steele clearly belonged to Salazar, but he had a solid alibi, and scrapings of blood and skin from underneath Steele's nails were never tested for a DNA match. Finn gets a judge to reopen the case, but then Dobson is murdered. Beleaguered Finn, along with PI sidekick Tom Kozlowski and law-school assistant Lissa Krantz, takes up the case in earnest, now convinced that the upright, honorable Salazar is innocent. Police handling the case block their investigation; wheelchair-bound Steele won't give an inch of helpful information; and the DNA results are damning. Hosp does a thorough job of bringing the reader inside the action on all fronts, playing effectively on Boston's ethnic diversity. He even provides a touching romance involving Lurch-like Koz and gutter-mouthed Lissa, who steal the show from their street-smart leader, still pining for D.C.-bound girlfriend Linda Flaherty. Smoothly handled suspense. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In 1992, a Boston policewoman is attacked and left for dead. But she survives and fingers Vincente Salazar, an El Salvadoran immigrant, as the perp. He is quickly arrested and just as quickly convicted. In 2007, Scott Finn, a private-practice attorney, is approached by a representative of the Innocence Project, a group dedicated to freeing people who were wrongly convicted. Salazar is innocent, the man tells Finn, and not only that, the evidence--some of which was suppressed by police in 1992--points to a conspiracy involving the very people who put the El Salvadoran away. Finn must risk his career, not to mention his life, to see that justice is done. While it doesn't break much new ground, this gripping legal thriller (more in the vein of Phillip Margolin than John Grisham) will be a hit with genre fans across the board, as well as people who recall the recent excellent-but-cancelled ABC crime drama, In Justice. --David Pitt Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In Hosp's third legal thriller (after Dark Harbor and The Betrayed), attorney Scott Finn has been contacted by a junior lawyer at his old law firm to take on some pro bono work in the case of El Salvadoran illegal immigrant Vincente Salazar, who was sent to prison for shooting a police officer 15 years ago. The case is being revisited on the basis of DNA evidence that was never mentioned at the original trial and may prove Salazar's innocence. Although Finn agrees to represent Salazar in a hearing to get the DNA evidence examined, he isn't convinced of the man's innocence-until the junior lawyer on the case is carved up with a machete and left for dead. To prove Salazar's innocence, Finn must find out why he was set up in the first place, which puts him at odds with both the Boston Police Department and a vicious South American gang. A riveting book that is hard to put down and will keep you hooked until the very end; recommended. [This book was inspired by Hosp's own experience as an attorney working with the New England Innocence Project.-Ed.]-Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.