Amazon.com Review When (not if---the deal has already been signed) this terrific thriller gets made into a movie, you might see Morgan Freeman as a crusty lawyer who specializes in taking on the military establishment tell the actress playing ace Boston barrister and Harvard Law professor Claire Heller Chapman, ''Every civilian who's ever gone into a military general court-martial and tried to attack the foundations of the military has lost his case. No exceptions. The military is a tight, closed fraternity. They take it real serious. Military justice is a deadly serious business.'' Claire has to realize this as she prepares to defend her husband--the man she knows as Tom Chapman, but who the Army says is Ron Kubik-- on charges that he took part in a massacre of 87 civilians in San Salvador 13 years before. Full of doubts about Tom's innocence and her own ability to prove it in an unfamiliar arena, Claire is brought to exciting, moving life by the extravagantly gifted Joseph Finder, whose previous thrillers (_Extraordinary Powers_, The Zero Hour ) are available in paperback. From Library Journal Finder's Zero Hour (LJ 4/1/96) was a dynamite blockbuster, and his new work is slated for the same big marketing treatment. Cinematic qualities predominate as the dialog roles on page after page with taut give-and-take and sudden plot turns that leave little time for reflection or description. (Not surprisingly, the novel is slated to become a Tri-Star Pictures motion picture.) The plot is arrow-straight: a woman lawyer, at the top of her profession, must defend her husband in a military court for his alleged horrific crimes while serving in Vietnam. Steeped in the arcane detail of military justice, with a tough-mouthed heroine and a hardworking support cast, this is not likely to be a candidate for Oprah's Book Club, but it is a sure bet for most thriller collections.?Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Claire Heller Chapman has the perfect life. She's a star Harvard Law School professor and high-powered attorney. Her second husband, Tom Chapman, is a charismatic and successful money manager who adores her and her six-year-old daughter.
But then one day a random burglary at their beautiful Boston home triggers a chain of events that turns their world upside down. A police investigation reveals the chilling fact that Tom is not who he says he is. Once he had a different name—even a different face. Suddenly this stranger, her husband, is put on trial for a crime he insists he didin't commit—an unspeakable atrocity that happened thriteen years ago. Now Claire must lay her reputation on the line to defend him in a top secret court martial where all the evidence is classified, the rules are unlike any she has ever known—and the real stakes are higher than Claire or anyone else can possibly suspect.
Washington Post
Deliciously absorbing...Exciting...full of hairpin turns...High Crimes generates lots of inside-the-bowels-of-the-Pentagon intrigue, but it's the psychological mystery of Tom's identity that really ratchets up the suspense here.
From the New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder comes a fast-paced legal thriller, High Crimes
Meet Claire Heller Chapman. A criminal defense attorney who's made a name for herself by taking on—and winning—the toughest cases, Claire still manages to have a relatively calm life as a Harvard Law School professor, devoted wife, and proud mother to six-year-old Annie. Until one night, when the family is out having dinner, a team of government agents bursts onto the scene...heading straight for Claire's husband.
Tom Chapman has been arrested for an atrocious crime he swears he did not commit. Claire is desperate to believe him—and prove his innocence—even when she learns that Tom once had a different name. And a different face. Now, in a top-secret court-martial conducted by the Pentagon, Claire will put everything on the line to defend the man she loves. But as the evidence keeps piling up, the less she knows who her husband really is...and the more he appears to be a cold-blooded murderer...
From the New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder comes a fast-paced legal thriller, High Crimes Meet Claire Heller Chapman. A criminal defense attorney who's made a name for herself by taking on—and winning—the toughest cases, Claire still manages to have a relatively calm life as a Harvard Law School professor, devoted wife, and proud mother to six-year-old Annie. Until one night, when the family is out having dinner, a team of government agents bursts onto the scene...heading straight for Claire's husband. Tom Chapman has been arrested for an atrocious crime he swears he did not commit. Claire is desperate to believe him—and prove his innocence—even when she learns that Tom once had a different name. And a different face. Now, in a top-secret court-martial conducted by the Pentagon, Claire will put everything on the line to defend the man she loves. But as the evidence keeps piling up, the less she knows who her husband really is...and the more he appears to be a cold-blooded murderer... Lawyer Claire Chapman of Boston swallows her pride and agrees to defend her husband, accused of murdering 87 peasants while a U.S. soldier in El Salvador. He admits marrying her under an assumed name after undergoing plastic surgery, but swears he is innocent, framed by his commanding officer who is now an important general High-profile attorney and Harvard Law professor Claire Heller Chapman puts her career on the line to defend her husband after he is revealed to be a former secret operative for the U.S. government and is arrested for an unspeakable atrocity committed some thirteen years earlier At exactly nine o'clock in the morning, Claire Heller Chapman entered the cavernous old Harvard Law School lecture hall and found a small knot of reporters lying in wait for her.
