Book Review: Just Verdicts

Just Verdicts Review

Joseph Max Lewis

 

Publisher: Trestle Press

Publication date: 5/2/2013

99-cent!

Literary Short Stories

Amazing! Three stories that are so real, so heart-breaking...reads like ripped from the headlines. Very good, Max! The author's background sizzles and if you don't know him, you'll want to acquaint yourself promptly.

 

It’s hard not to agree with popular opinion that people who are in a place to make decisions that affect the lives of others, no matter the profession, should always make the right one. But, “right” according to whom? It’s equally hard not to ache with the man in Lewis’s first story who goes after lawyers in public places after the system couldn’t erase his own personal tragedy. Lump them all together, right, laugh at the usual jokes, right? Treat them all the same—until he runs into Stanley Hardy, a criminal defense attorney with a conscience. In the end, “How do you do it?” is a question both men must answer.

 

In Iraq, an American lawyer on fellowship to assist with legal reforms, Ralph Jackson, meets female judge Isha Hami. It’s unfortunate that the reader assumes nothing good will come of this scenario. She’s trying a case where American soldiers are the only witnesses in a terrorist murder case. But the most resistance comes from a place Jackson least expects.

 

The third story might be the shortest and is the most cryptic. Steve Burgess, good old boy wallowing in self-pity after an accident that took his family, gets a chance to make good in a way that makes the reader want to read it over just for the simplicity of a good sting.

Just Verdicts - brand new (cheap!) fiction from Max Lewis

    

         

 

Just Verdicts on Kindle

– Literary Short Stories, by Joseph Max Lewis

On the heels of his success with the open throttled, no time for doubts novel, The Diaries of Pontius Pilate, Joseph Max Lewis displays his versatility with a new release, Just Verdicts.   These are “first person” short stories of legal suspense.

Hunting Lawyers – A troubled man victimized by the legal system decides to hunt lawyers.  Neither he nor his prey are likely to escape unscathed.

The Judge’s Eyes – Gulf War Veteran Ralph Jackson returns to Iraq after the second Iraq war as a legal advisor to Isha Hami, Iraq’s first female Judge.  When Isha defies Iraq’s deadly political factions, Jackson’s legal and military skills are put to the test.

Redemption – (Previously released)   After a personal tragedy, Steven Burgess allowed himself to sink into self-pity and his law practice into disrepute.   Now he has one last chance, but will it lead to ruin or Redemption?

Just Verdicts costs 99 cents and, as with The Diaries of Pontius Pilate, a portion of the author’s royalties go to support Pine Valley Camp, a Christian Ministry that provides a free camp experience for inner city kids.

About Max:

Joseph Max Lewis served as a member of an Operational Detachment in the U.S. Army's Seventh Special Forces Group, the storied Green Berets.  During his service Lewis received antiterrorist training and his detachment was tasked to "Special Projects."  Afterward, he served as an instructor at the Special Forces Qualification Course.  Lewis attended the Pennsylvania State University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the University of Tel Aviv in Israel, and the University of Pittsburgh, receiving degrees in International Politics and Law while being certified in Middle East Studies. After living and studying abroad, first in the Middle East and then Southeast Asia, Lewis returned home to practice law.  He’s a columnist in the New Bethlehem Leader-Vindicator, author of The Diaries of Pontius Pilate and currently lives, writes, and practices law in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Book Review: Debut Action Thriller

The Diaries of Pontius Pilate

JosephMax Lewis

c. August 2012
Trestle Press
Genre: Contemporary Thriller
e-Book $4.99

 

Nook

 

Kindle

 

briefly:

 

The Diaries of Pontius Pilate opens with the murder of a member of an archeological team along the shores of the Dead Sea. We learn that the murderer and victim are both spies observing the expedition and grappling with the fact that the team has just discovered some controversial artifacts.

In fact, archaeologists Kevin Elliot Jill Gates have unearthed twenty mysterious copper scrolls. They manage to open one scroll far enough to take a series of digital photographs of the writings and email them to a Professor of Ancient Latin for translation. Unaware of the content, Kevin and Jill are unprepared when they’re caught between an ancient conspiracy of global power that’s determined to destroy the scrolls along with everyone connected to them and a small interfaith group of former military volunteers, the only force on earth that stands between the truth and certain death.

 

My review:

Joseph Max Lewis, former Green Beret, debuts with a page-turning thriller. Although the author asked for a review and sent a review copy, I did purchase the e-book.

 

Diaries is part conspiracy theory, part archaeology, part special ops and technological suspense with some torture and a little romance.

The reader is sent between international and inter-denominational power groups, but it’s not clear at first who are the good guys and which are the bad, which only ramps the tension. Moving through Israel, the US, academia, and anonymous torture chambers where evil reigns, readers gradually learn along with archaeologists Kevin and Jill exactly the importance of the long-held secret they unearthed. Never published, documented, or even more than faintly rumored, the existence of Pontius Pilate’s, one-time Roman ruler of Palestine at the time of Christ,  investigation into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus could affect the faith of the world. Pilate hid the diaries perhaps too well, for they lay silent for two thousand years, along with other artifacts from that horrible time.

 

Running from those who want to destroy evidence of the diaries and anyone who knows about them, Kevin and Jill must figure out who to trust as they are forced into close quarters on a ship. They wonder if they can even trust each other. Over the course of time, they examine their feelings as well as matters of faith while trying to keep the scrolls safe.

Diaries is not for the faint of heart, as scenes of massacre and torture are somewhat graphic. Intriguing details of military operations are detailed, as one would expect given the author’s background. Little formatting glitches and occasional other errors don’t stop the action much; I occasionally buzzed through extra-long passages of technology which others would probably enjoy. The romantic relationship was a little rough and spastic, but the story was not meant to be built around a romance, and those elements will only get better in future work, I suspect. I look forward to more from this author.