Book Review: A CONFLICT OF INTEREST, by Adam Mitzner

Adam Mitzner
A CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Gallery Books, 2011
371 pages
Legal Thriller

I read this book with a growing knot in my gut! My anxiety grew. There was no way to turn pages fast enough!

Adam Mitzner's debut thriller is comparable to when John Grisham and Scott Turrow were at their best. That is to say that A CONFLICT OF INTEREST falls into the same legal thriller vein as A TIME TO KILL and PRESUMED INNOCENT. I can't recall the last time I read a courtroom drama with as much intensity and suspense. For the recorded I am following this author. On Amazon. On Goodreads. On Twitter . . . I want to --NO-- I need to know when more books are released (FYI I have the next three of his ready to go. Reviews forthcoming!)

Okay. Enough gushing over Mr. Mitzner.

Alex Miller is an attorney at a prestigious law firm. A partner. He makes a solid living, has a beautiful wife, and cute-as-a-button five year old daughter. The book starts with the funeral of his father. The man died rather young, and unexpected.

At the funeral, his father's long-time friend, Michael Ohlig approaches Miller about a legal issue. He owns OPM Boutique. A small brokerage firm. The government is after him for securities fraud. A terrible stock hit the market. A venture that provided 100% salmonella-free eggs needed backing. Stock went south. Investors lost their shirts. Criminal proceedings pending. Insisting on his innocence, Ohlig is looking to Miller for help.

OPM is a big fish. The partners in Miller's law firm are thrilled at the retainer size, and billable hours potential. Devising a Defense Team to represent other OPM key employees, and taking on rising-star junior partner Abby Sloane, Miller gets to work to prove Ohlig's innocence to the world.

Pushing through a suddenly turbulent sea of discovery, a relatively promising case becomes anything but textbook as the prosecution's witnesses disappear, bribes are made, and back room deals are cut. Suddenly, Miller is knocked off balance. His relationship is unsteady, and spending time with Sloane is muddying his line of virtue.

Hidden truths keep surfacing.

Miller is afraid he is drowning as he searches for answers, for truth. Things only go from bad to worse when murder is committed and a surprising arrest is made. Miller stands to lose everything, his career, his family, his sanity in Adam Mitzner's A CONFLICT OF INTEREST.

Phillip Tomasso
Author of the Severed Empire Series,
and The Vaccination Trilogy