‘LEAP’ into the New Year With an Extra Day for Reading

THE LITIGATORS

By JOHN GRISHAM

Doubleday, $28.95

Grisham’s back and right where we like him; in a small law firm vs. a giant corporation and its huge army of lawyers. Law partners, Finley & Figg, described by one character as a “2-man ham-and-egg operation,” is surviving on quickie divorces, DUIs and little else until, one day, David Zinc, a young, burned out, $300,000-a-year refugee from his fancy downtown law firm, stumbles in after a full day self commiserating in a bar.

Together, the three, betting everything they have, go after the “big one,” a class-action suit against a giant drug company that will make them a fortune without requiring much work. Wish ’em luck.

THE DROP

By MICHAEL CONNELLY

Little, Brown, $27.99

On his return to the LAPD, Detective Harry Bosch is placed on the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), and assigned the unsolved case of a 1989 rape and murder of a young woman. The only clue points to an 8-year-old boy unless the Crime Lab has fouled up big-time. In addition, a powerful city councilman, with a grievance against the detective, demands that Bosch personally investigate the death of his son who fell, jumped or was thrown off a hotel balcony.

While balancing the two cases, caring for his teenage daughter and delicately exploring a new romance, Bosch, literally, has his hands full.

THE FALL of the

HOUSE of ZEUS

By CURTIS WILKIE

Crown Publishing, $25.99

Mississippi lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs was once considered by many to be “America’s Most Powerful Trial Lawyer.” That is, until he pleaded guilty of attempting to bribe a judge.

Scruggs earned enormous fees from winning asbestos and tobacco litigation allowing him to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the multi-million-dollar home he shared with his wife, the sister-in-law of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott. Empowered by Washington insiders, he proved once again that power corrupts, and is now serving a five-year sentence in federal prison.

THE GUILTY PLEA

By ROBERT ROTENBERG

FSG, $28

In what appears to be an open and shut case, Samantha Wyler, who has relentlessly threatened her estranged husband over his public affair with a Hollywood starlet, appears at her attorney’s office with a bloody knife in a towel. It’s the murder weapon used to stab her husband to death while their young son was asleep upstairs.

While “Sam” is the obvious and only suspect, neither Detective Ari Greene nor prosecutor Jennifer Raglan is convinced of her guilt. The courtroom scenes are sensational. A can’t miss thriller.

KBL KILL BIN LADEN

By JOHN WEISMAN

William Morrow, $26.99

Although we know that an elite U. S. military force killed Osama Bin Laden in May of this year, his death does not minimize the excitement and tension in this fictional version of how we planned and prepared for that mission. The novel is based on factual information from the White House, the CIA and Military leaders, all of whom had a say in the mission.

It’s as exciting as any thriller but even more so for being based on true events leaving readers with a sense of “being there.”

CALLING MR. KING

By RONALD DE FEO

Other Press $14.95, Paperback

This is a delightfully offbeat thriller about a contract killer who, after he botches a job, is given time off, during which he develops a passion for architecture, particularly Georgian, and begins to consider his permanent retirement. Only problem is, his employers want him back and when he doesn’t respond, send out other killers to put him away.

Interestingly, the entire novel is told in the voice of “Mr. King,” his pseudonym, and it isn’t until the last page that we learn his real name.

JUST TELL ME WHAT TO EAT!

By TIMOTHY S. HARLAN, MD

Da Capo, $25

How about a diet of barbecue chicken pizza, red beans and rice, crab cakes, chocolate cheesecake and other tasty delights? Dr. Harlan, medical director at Tulane University School of Medicine, shows just how you can eat food you love and still lose two to four pounds per month with his six-week diet.

Some examples: on Day 1, have fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and broccoli; and on Day 28, enjoy beef stroganoff with egg noodles.

Not a bad way to lose up to 48 pounds a year.