Trial by Ordeal by Craig Parshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is actually a little better than 4 stars, maybe as high as 4.5 stars. It is easy reading; the plot kept moving, with the protagonist getting in escalating problems, mostly due to his own actions. He made a poor choice with his lawyer, though that was really based on a bad recommendation.

The things I thought could have been handled better:
- The meeting the protag has with his eventual love interest wasn't clear. I would have liked it to be better.
- The unraveling of the protag's legal problems seemed almost unbelievable. I don't want to reveal what happens. Let's just say too many things that happened seem improbable.
- Parshall on occasion explains things that the reader should be smart enough to understand. When some Mafia goons come after the protag with baseball bats, the author tells us they are wielding baseball bats, then that the protag didn't want to be beaten with Louisville Slugger baseball bats. Really, Mr. Parshall? You didn't think your reader would understand what a Louisville Slugger is?
- The Mafia people are presented in a stereotypical way, as you would expect mobsters from the 1950s and 60s.

This is certain worth the read.


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