Phillip M. Margolin — The Burning Man

Time Warner Paperbacks 1997 Paperback, 409pp. Peter Hale is a young attorney struggling to make his own mark in his father's venerable law firm when he is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. During the trial of a multi-million dollar case, Peter's father suffers a heart attack and tells Peter to move for a mistrial until he's recovered. Peter decides this is his only chance to prove to his father that he is the whizz-kid lawyer he knows himself to be, and he chooses to carry on with the case against his father's wishes. In his zeal to prove himself, Peter neglects his client and ends up losing everything - the case, his job, and his father.Unemployed and disinherited, Peter takes the only job he is offered - that of a public defender in a small Oregon town. But his ambition again gets the better of him when he takes on a death penalty case. It is only when Peter realises that his greed and his ego may end up killing his client that he begins to understand what it really takes to be a good lawyer - and to become a man. Tanned; cover creased. (ISBN: 9780751519136). Good.