The Merits of the Case

This blog has turned out to be an incredibly efficient and timely means of keeping you all up to date about my diagnosis and treatment. I’m so happy that this technology is available to all of us; it has made this easier in many unexpected ways. Blogging is still a relatively new phenomenon, but the potential powers of this medium are just beginning to be tapped.

I don’t know if it’s because my blog lists me as a law student or because of my recent post about my friend Martha’s new book or perhaps a combination of both, but a couple of weeks ago a publisher contacted me about another recently published book. He offered to send me a review copy of the book and in exchange asked me to write a review of it on my blog. I told him I’d be happy to read it, but that I would only post a review if I liked it.

The author is a lawyer who, like Martha, graduated from Columbia Law School. He has written for several TV shows, including Prison Break, Law and Order and The Sopranos, among others.

I hoped that I would like it, but I wasn’t sure if I would since it’s not the kind of book I normally read. However, I was very pleasantly surprised and in fact I quite enjoyed reading it. So, as promised, here is my review:

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Nick Santora’s new book, Slip & Fall, can best be described as the story you might expect if the producers of The Sopranos asked John Grisham to pen an episode. The plot is a fast-paced page-turner with something for everyone—humor, suspense, violence, love, and action—all wrapped up in a Good Fellas-type legal thriller. The main character, Rob Principe, is immensely likeable, despite the bad decisions he makes. I found myself cheering for him throughout his narration of his harrowing experience of sinking deeper and deeper into the seedy underworld of one of New York’s Mob families as a result of those bad decisions.

Principe is a young down-on-his-luck lawyer who finds himself disillusioned with the practice of personal injury law and struggling to make ends meet in his solo practice in Bensonhurst, New York. Through a series of chance encounters with various Italian friends and family members, he stumbles upon a way to bring lucrative business into the firm. His financial desperation has forced him into a corner, and the only way that he can think of to protect his wife, house and family is to take part in a legal scheme which could have disastrous results for him and the people he loves. A normally honest and honorable guy, Principe suffers from guilt and cold feet when he actually moves forward with the scheme. He tries to extricate himself, but only succeeds in digging himself deeper into the midst of danger. Santora kept this reader on the edge of her seat as I followed Principe through the murky realm of the Mob and New York’s legal system, hoping against hope that he was going to find his way back out of the tangled web he helped to weave.

The characters, plot and dialogue in Slip & Fall feel authentic to me, despite the fact that my knowledge of Italian families and the Mafia comes mainly from movies like The Godfather and Good Fellas. The main characters are well-developed and believable and the dialogue flows smoothly. The plot moves along well and I found myself holding my breath at times as I waited to find out how Principe was going to handle some of the sticky situations in which he finds himself.

While I won’t be recommending this one to my book club for any deep, introspective discussion, I will recommend it enthusiastically to anyone looking for an entertaining, enjoyable, well-written summer beach or vacation read.