Joseph Finder's (Guilty Minds) expert thrillers are like bullet trains; they immediately shoot out of the gate and provide breathtaking twists and turns at an adrenaline-pumping pace. Finder boasts a distinctive skill for creating characters of depth and complexity. His forte is spinning tales of ordinary people suddenly thrust into extraordinary situations that require them to outmaneuver trained killers and spies.
Judgment's heroine is Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Juliana Brody, who is presiding over a sexual harassment suit. At a conference, she meets a charming widower and they have a passionate one-night stand. This mistake leads to her being blackmailed by a shadowy entity that wants her to dismiss the harassment case. A video of her tryst threatens to break up her family and destroy her career. As one confidant tells her, "When men make mistakes, the mistakes are forgotten. When a woman makes a mistake, the woman is forgotten." Brody hires a private detective and the two discover that her office is bugged, she's being followed and she's been implicated in a murder. The bodies begin to pile up as Brody discovers that the all-knowing villains behind her nightmare are hand puppets for a Russian oligarch. Much like a Russian doll, Judgment continually reveals twists within twists within twists.
Not content with writing a superior nail-bitter, Finder adds gravitas to Judgment as Brody continually grapples with legal and moral issues involving her breaking the law to save herself. This is another high-octane winner from Joseph Finder. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant