Book Review and Giveaway: Dead by Proxy by Manning Wolfe

Legal Thriller / Suspense / Action

Publisher: Starpath Books, LLC

Date of Publication: September 15, 2023

Number of Pages: 324 pages

Did anyone get the license number of that truck that just laid me out?! That’s this book. Y’all, Manning Wolfe has written an absolute banger of a novel with Dead by Proxy.

Byron Douglas is a respected criminal defense lawyer in New York City, and he’s very good at what he does. He’s retained to represent a defendant connected to the Irish Mob, charged with murder. When his client insists on testifying against Byron’s strongly worded recommendation, Byron is unable to live up to his reputation, and the jury finds his client guilty. Byron then finds himself in a heap of trouble, literally running for his life.

I burned through this book in significantly less than 24 hours. I could not put it down, because I had to know what happened! After his defeat in court, it doesn’t take Byron long to realize the Irish Mafia has him in the crosshairs, and he starts laying some pretty meticulous plans for dropping out of sight. I was impressed! If I were in fear for my life, I don’t know that I’d have the presence of mind to set things up the way he did. (That’s probably why he’s a better trial lawyer than I ever was, that whole preparation thing.) But no plan is perfect, and while he’s making enough playing poker to survive, he misses his legal career. When his cover is blown, Byron heads to Texas to see a judge – the father of his former best friend, Quinton Bell. The judge suggests that Byron takes on a life as Quinton, but will that be enough to protect him?Manning Wolfe does a masterful job with courtroom settings and litigation know-how. I was on the prosecution side of the bar, but I can tell you, her descriptions of the process are spot on. And I know defense attorneys are generally not highly regarded except by the people hoping for a not guilty verdict, but I appreciated that she had Byron/Quinton not being a total jerk in court. He conducted himself with professionalism and he did the best he could to provide a zealous defense to someone who was a pretty despicable person.

She also does a phenomenal job of writing a thriller that will have you chewing your nails to the quick. The tension absolutely never lets up. Quinton is constantly looking over his shoulder, second-guessing himself. He’s been made once before. Is a new identity enough to keep the eyes of the Irish off him? And even when he thinks it’s okay to draw a breath, that maybe he isn’t on their radar for a minute or two, he has to navigate life basically wearing someone else’s skin. Who can he trust? Who can he just relax and be himself with? Who can he tell his secret to? I can only imagine that keeping people at that kind of distance is exhausting.

I’m not going to tell you the whole story. That’s Ms. Wolfe’s job, and I certainly can’t do it better than she can. I will tell you this: there were things I didn’t see coming, and Judge Bell does a whole lot of stuff that I’m pretty sure violates more than one judicial canon. I know desperate times call for desperate measures, and he did what he thought was best to help Byron. But man, Judge Bell rolled some pretty big dice and hoped no one called him on any of it. And he calls himself an officer of the court. I wasn’t sure whether I really liked his character or not as the story went on!

Find yourself a comfy spot and settle in, because once you start Dead by Proxy, you won’t want to stop until you get to the end. It’s a great beginning to the Proxy Legal Thriller series, and there’s a heck of a cliffhanger at the end that will leave you in a froth to get your hands on the next book!