Wrongful Death
Written by Robert Dugoni
Narrated by Dan John Miller
4/5
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About this audiobook
New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni tackles hot-button issues in this riveting legal thriller featuring attorney David Sloane. When a widow asks Sloane to take her case against the military, Sloane knows it's a lost cause but can't turn her down, even if it puts his own life—and the lives of his family—in dire jeopardy.
Just minutes after winning a $1.6 million wrongful-death verdict, attorney David Sloane confronts the one case that threatens to blemish his unbeaten record in the courtroom. Beverly Ford wants Sloane to sue the United States government and military in the mysterious death of her husband, James, a national guardsman killed in Iraq. While a decades-old military doctrine might make Ford's case impossible to win, Sloane, a former soldier himself, is compelled to find justice for the widow and her four children in what is certain to become the biggest challenge of his career.
With little hard evidence to go on, Sloane calls on his friend, reclusive former CIA agent turned private investigator Charles Jenkins, to track down the other men serving with Ford the night he died. Alarmingly, two of the four who returned home alive didn't stay that way for long, and though the mission's wheelchairbound commander now works for a civilian contractor, he refuses to talk. The final—and youngest—soldier is also the most elusive, but he's their only shot at discovering the truth—if Sloane and Jenkins can keep him alive long enough to tell it.
Meanwhile, Sloane isn't the only one on a manhunt. As he propels his case into a federal courtroom, those seeking to hide the truth threaten Sloane's family, forcing his new wife Tina and stepson Jake into hiding, where they become the targets of a relentless killer. Now Sloane must race to uncover what really happened on that fatal mission, not only to bring justice to a family wronged but to keep himself and the people closest to him from becoming the next casualties....
Robert Dugoni
Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite series, which has sold more than four million books worldwide. He is also the author of the bestselling David Sloane series; the Charles Jenkins series including The Eighth Sister, the stand-alone novels The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, for which he won an AudioFile Earphones Award for the narration; and the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post best book of the year. He is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for fiction and the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He is a two-time finalist for the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award. His books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Visit his website at www.robertdugoni.com.
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Reviews for Wrongful Death
127 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The second book in the David Sloane series, it uses two hot button issues to create a masterful story -- the feres doctrine (military cannot sue the government) and military contractors, who supply the military with functions not available internally. There are lots of characters and keeping them separate is not easy. The book was well written and uses flash backs to tell some of the story. There seemed to be no useless details and it was quite engaging.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the second book in the David Sloane series. David is a wrongful death attorney with an incredible records of wins. When Beverly Ford approaches him with a request to take on her case, he's intrigued but can't give her much hope. Beverly's husband, John, was killed in Iraq during an operation, and soldiers are exempt from suing the government if they are killed during a wartime battle.
David, a Marine veteran, feels like he can at least look into Ford's death to make sure there are no options. Almost immediately he discovers things might not be right. Statements from the other soldiers in the unit look like they are all identical. When he goes to interview the witnesses he discovers at least two have died under suspicious circumstances.
Overall, Wrongful Death is an exciting, fast moving story of deceit and lies. The author did a great job of taking the reader through the intricacies of how the military legal system works. This book can easily be read as a standalone, but it does use several of the same characters we met in Book 1, Jury Master. I'm definitely planning to continue this engrossing series, and probably start series Dugoni writes, featuring homicide detective, Tracy Crosswhite. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When Sloan sets out to sue the federal government to obtain benefits he believes belong to the family of a National Guardsman killed in the Iraq War, he must overcome a formidable barrier--the doctrine that prohibits soldiers or their families from suing the US government for injuries received serving while in the line of duty. The complex story unfolds stateside, but also in a series of flashbacks on the part of the troops involved in the battle.
In some ways, this book reminded me of Rules of Engagement, which also used flashbacks to unravel the events surrounding deaths in the first Gulf War. However, while Rules of Engagement focused on the war experience itself, Wrongful Death is a richer experience because it develops not only the characters of the squad members, but also the character of Sloan, his investigator (Charles Jenkins) and their respective families.
Although the general nature of the solution to the puzzle presented in this book seems predictable, the actual details were not at all what I expected. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I put WRONGFUL DEATH on my reading list as a result of a recommendation on a discussion list I belong to. It will probably appeal most to people who like Grisham-type legal thrillers or someone who is looking for a crime fiction title related to America's recent war efforts in Iraq.It is the second title in his David Sloan series1. The Jury Master (2006)2. Wrongful Death (2009)3. Bodily Harm (2010)and seems loosely based on those news stories we've all heard about American contractors supplying the Iraq government with the ability to make war, and then on profiteering happening during the war and the reconstruction efforts.The tension in WRONGFUL DEATH builds nicely as David Sloan and Charles Jenkins search for the remnant of the team who were companions of the dead Guardsman James Ford. Two of the men are killed just before Sloan and Jenkins locate them and the race is on to locate the third.What seems to be a simple wrongful death case hinges on technicalities and takes a surprising twist when the US government offers a compensation package. There were times in the book when I wished I had read the earlier title THE JURY MASTER if only for the background on Sloan whom I really liked as the leading character.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wrongful Death pits the jury master, David Sloane--now a plaintiff's lawyer in Seattle--against no less than the United States military. Sloane is hired by the widow of a National Guardsman killed in Iraq. Her claim that his death could have been prevented seems destined to fail, particularly in light of the Feres doctrine, which protects the military against wrongful death suits. Sloane grudgingly agrees to take a look at her case, but quickly comes to see that there's more to it than meets the eye. He uncovers lies and deceit of all sorts, up to the top levels. There's corruption in the government, there's corruption in big business...are Sloane and his team the only good guys left in the country? Well, not quite, but still...Dugoni writes a pretty deft thriller, twisty and turny, with a satisfying bang! at the end. If his writing is choppy and not particularly original, well, we've read worse. And since his publisher is working hard to set him up as the next book-a-year bestseller, he'll have plenty of opportunity to smooth out his rough edges.Recommended as a quick, juicy read.