Random House (Hardcover), ISBN 0-375-50502-4

Author Robert Reuland writes a legal suspense novel filled with a heavy dose of cynicism and a disconcerting reality vis-à-vis the state of our country's justice system. He populates his Brooklyn courtroom with a cast that includes a indifferent judge who takes care of personal business during the trial, a defense lawyer more predisposed to cutting a deal with the prosecution than try his client's case and a politicized district attorney's office willing to go to any lengths for a conviction.

Former Homicide Prosecutor Andrew Giobberti -- banished from the prosecutor's office for his perceived mishandling of a previous murder case -- now spends his workday in Brooklyn's Appeals Bureau shuffling papers and poring over dry legal case histories. He sleep walks through each boring day and secretly longs for a chance to get back into the courtroom where he once excelled.

A chance for redemption unexpectedly appears in the form of Phil Bloch, the supervisor who assigned Giobberti to this ninth floor dead end. Bloch offers Giobberti a chance to return to Homicide and take over a case with two conditions attached. Giobberti must be ready for the trial which starts the next day and he must work with a new prosecutor, Laurel Ashfield, who will be trying her first homicide in the bureau.

Though suspicious of Bloch's motives, Giobberti agrees to handle the case. He quickly discovers that he and Ashfield hold opposite views of how to proceed. But despite their personality clashes they continue to work toward a positive resolution of the trial. Giobberti's misgivings about the case increase when a key witness, mentally impaired because of a brutal and violent act in his past, turns up missing. As preparation for the trial draws rapidly to the point of no return, the two prosecutors must tread the thin line between their moral principles and their desire for a just resolution of the case.

Semiautomatic continues the saga of Andrew Giobberti as described in the first novel of the series, Hollowpoint. This novel begins with a fascinating and introspective monologue which introduces Giobberti and supplies the reader with background material on the circumstances leading to the anti-hero's current state of affairs. Yet the reprise left me slightly unsatisfied. Much of the novel's impact depends upon an understanding of past relationships between Giobberti and his peers, and this aspect of his past life, though alluded to in some detail, remains only partially developed in the recapitulation.

As a result, readers who begin with this title may find themselves occasionally struggling to connect characters with allusions to past actions of importance to the plot. The solution to this minor dilemma, of course, lies in reading the two novels in proper order. The unique and entertaining reading experience provided by Reuland's novels makes this solution an easy choice.

Clint Hunter

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