The Defence by Steve Cavanagh #20BooksofSummer

Author : Steve Cavanagh
Title : The Defence
Series : Eddie Flynn #1
Pages : 306
Publisher : Orion
Publication date : February 18, 2016

The truth has no place in a courtroom. The truth doesn’t matter in a trial.

The only thing that matters is what the prosecution can prove.

Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren’t that different.

It’s been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn’t have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie’s back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter Amy.

Eddie only has 48 hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial – and win – if wants to save his daughter.

Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI, Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to defend his ‘client’ and ensure Amy’s safety. With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of the impossible?

Lose this case and he loses everything.

As soon as I finished Thirteen, which I didn’t realise was the fourth book in a series at the time, I knew I would go back and catch up on the previous ones as soon as I could.

In The Defence, we are introduced to Eddie Flynn, one-time conman and lawyer, although the two seem remarkably interchangeable. Once a hustler, always a hustler but Eddie is quite the likeable one and in The Defence we learn how events led him to making that step from conman to lawyer with the help of Judge Harry

The action pulls you in from the first page when Eddie is faced with a gun pointing at his head during a trip to the restroom in a restaurant. The Russian mob needs his help but they have a funny way of asking for it. Not only does Eddie find himself with a bomb lined in his jacket, his daughter has been kidnapped as well. Eddie has no choice but to cooperate. Preferably without being responsible for a whole bunch of dead bodies and even more preferably, with his daughter and himself safe from harm.

Eddie soon realises though he’s not being told the whole story. We’re dealing with the mob after all. Backstabbing, rivalry, corruption and a dead body here and there … it’s all in a day’s work really. Can Eddie figure out what’s going on? Can he save his daughter? And himself?

The tricks Eddie has learned in his “previous life” sure do come in handy, as do connections on the other side of the law. More than anything, Eddie is brilliantly clever, fiercely determined and incredibly resourceful. The Defence is intense, action-packed and hugely entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed going back to the first book and having the opportunity to fill in some of Eddie’s background. I’ll definitely be catching up on the other books in this series when I have the time.

The Defence is available to buy!

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Kobo | Goodreads

Book 16 from my 20 Books of Summer list.