The Disappearance by J.F. Freedman

First published in 1998; published digitally by Open Road Media on May 28, 2013

The Disappearance is a low octane novel. Although J.F. Freedman assembled the elements that characterize strong legal thrillers -- a troubled lawyer, a shocking crime, a dramatic trial -- dull moments and lackluster writing detract from the reading experience.

Fourteen-year-old Emma Lancaster is apparently abducted from her bedroom. A year after the discovery of her dead body (and the corresponding discovery that Emma was pregnant), an up-and-coming news anchor, Joe Allison, is arrested for her murder. The arrest comes after a police officer stops Allison on suspicion of drunk driving, searches Allison's glove compartment, and finds Emma's key chain. The officer's remarkable ability to associate the key chain with a girl who had been missing for a year is extraordinarily unlikely, but it forms the basis for Allison's arrest and prosecution.

Even less likely is Allison's inability to find a high quality lawyer willing to defend him, supposedly because the victim's father (who owns the television station that employs Allison) has too much clout in Santa Barbara. Given the plethora of excellent Los Angeles lawyers who would be climbing over each other to take a high profile case like this one, the premise is mildly ridiculous, but it gives Freedman the excuse to introduce outcast lawyer Luke Garrison, who reluctantly agrees to take the case.

Although he's annoyingly self-righteous, Luke is a more intriguing character than legal thrillers typically generate. Formerly the hot-shot district attorney in Santa Barbara (and still fond of the moralizing speeches that district attorneys make during political campaigns), Luke left Santa Barbara after he discovered that he had prosecuted and caused the execution of an innocent man. He still has demons to exorcise, and returning to Santa Barbara to defend Allison seems like the place to start. Complicating his life is the fact that someone is trying to kill him.

Unfortunately, a strong premise and an intriguing character aren't enough to make a thriller thrilling. Although The Disappearance isn't a particularly long novel, some lengthy scenes are made all the lengthier by their tedium. Luke is overwhelmed by the importance of the trial, and by the fourth or fifth description of Luke's anxiety, I was ready to say, "I got it. Move on." Too much of the novel is redundant: Luke ponders the same evidence, over and over (yes, that's what lawyers do, but it doesn't make for exciting reading); Luke thinks about his past and questions the choices he made; Luke frets about his relationship with his girlfriend. Endlessly.

More significantly, during the first two-thirds of the novel, The Disappearance fails to exploit the drama that inheres in crime and uncertain accusations. Much of the story reads like nonfiction, the work of a true crime journalist reporting the facts with an air of detachment. The emotional responses that strong legal thrillers generate are largely absent from this one. Fortunately, those problems lessen once the trial is underway. Courtroom scenes are tense. The "inside baseball" of trial procedure is handled well, as are the politics of prosecution. Freeman understands the fear that trial judges have of following the law if that means excluding evidence of guilt from a trial, because the voting public would rather have judges disregard the law if the law compels results that the public doesn't like.

While the novel's ultimate resolution is satisfying, some aspects of the story --particularly Allison's actions on the night Emma disappears -- are completely implausible. The buildup about the strength of the case against Allison is laughable. There are no witnesses to the killing, no DNA. The physical evidence that ties Allison to the disappearance (none of which the real killer would likely have kept) isn't nearly enough to assure a "slam dunk" conviction, despite Luke's repeated assurances to the contrary. There might have been better evidence if used condoms had been tested for DNA, but the failure to do so isn't explained, or even noticed. While emotions and theatrics are common enough in courtrooms, the lawyers are given to tantrums that struck me as unrealistic.

Although I like the story more than its execution -- it never delivers the suspense that Freeman intended -- on balance, The Disappearance is a novel I would guardedly recommend to fans of legal thrillers. There are enough entertaining moments in the far-fetched plot to make it worthwhile, but not enough to make it memorable.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS