I read and reviewed Thomas Benigno’s first Nick Mannino novel, The Good Lawyer, some time back. I liked it quite a lot, but I missed the sequel, The Criminal Lawyer. I’m making that up now.

In the first book, Nick gave up the practice of criminal law to please his wife, who hated it. But after they separated he went back to it, though he’s not doing it any more. He and she are still friendly (he hasn’t given up hopes for reconciliation), and he adores his two adult children, John and Charlotte. So he’s horrified when John’s fiancée is kidnapped, and taunting messages are sent by the kidnapper from her cell phone. The most puzzling thing is that this serial killer has been abducting prostitutes, which this girl is definitely not.

Nick has connections with organized crime. He’s not involved with their business, but he took the money when his mobster uncle left him his fortune. This means Nick has considerable resources to draw on in his effort to find this serial killer and rescue John’s fiancée. What he doesn’t expect is that it will lead him eventually to a violent, personal encounter with the monster – an encounter that could end his life – or transform it.

I have to admit I didn’t like The Criminal Lawyer as much as The Good Lawyer, though I did like it. The story was compelling, the plotting good, the characters interesting. I thought the prose was a little flaccid; it could have been tightened considerably. The author is also prone to misplaced and dangling modifiers. And the big scene where Nick unloads his deepest secrets to another person for the first time in his life seemed improbable and awkward to me. The epilogue was probably too long, but it provided satisfying closure.

On balance, a pretty good book.