The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens

Just finished this, my 3rd Eskens book and absolutely enjoyed it.  I would recommend reading these from the beginning because of some of the characters who flow through.  Published in 2016, 298 pages, this is my favorite so far. This is a very good twister, in that just when I thought I had something figured out there was another turn.  I am enjoying Eskens because he writes in a way that draws me in, I find myself trying to solve the crime and sift the nuances, very engaging.  This story begins with the result and then  retreats to tell the story.  

Back cover

The opening paragraph, "The courtroom had fallen quiet, the judge's words lost behind a low hum that droned in Max Rupert's ears.  Max reached for his water glass, a waxy paper cup on the rail of the witness stand.  It lifted empty and light.  He didn't remember drinking the last of his water.  He paused, the empty cup halfway to his lips, unsure what to do next.  Pretend to take a drink?  Put the cup back down on the rail?"  Max Rupert, the detective,  is angry with his former friend Boady Sanders, who has returned as a defense attorney now for the defendant, Ben Pruitt on trial for the murder of his wife, Jennavieve.  Their friendship is now no more, the lines have been drawn and crossed.  Boady has not taken a client case since the death of an innocent client but comes out of his  retirement professor job to help an old colleague  Pg. 10, "He found an empty conference room, a space the size of a jail cell,  where attorneys fed false hopes to clients, a room where desperation clung to the walls as thick as grease in a fast food restaurant."  .  

Pg 15, "No, Kenwood was a neighborhood that prided itself on living well and peacefully, a neighborhood that liked to be left alone."  This is the neighborhood where the Pruitts lived.  

Pages 140-141, The title of the book comes from the Latin, "Fiat justitia ruat caelum" meaning let justice be done thought the heavens may fall.  It is a phrase Boady uses in an Ethics lecture.   " If a person is ever presented with that choice, that person must always do what is right even though it may bring on great personal loss."

Page 153, Chapter 30 begins, "There is a fog that can infect a person's brain, a thick, feverish sludge that engulfs sound and thought with an effect similar to being submerged in a tub of water. Max  had experienced this fog after his wife died.  He visited it once again the week his brother died,..."  I read and felt perhaps Max was not as rational as astute  right now, still suffering pangs of losing his wife.  

Page 177, "Boady would have returned the gesture in kind.  Winning had everything to do with knowing the case better than your opponent and nothing to do with feathers ruffling."  , 

I honestly had no idea how this novel would end, I felt that Ben Pruitt, the defendant was innocent that he  could not have killed his wife, that the cops got it wrong, Max was wrong.  Boady also believed Pruitt who had been a very successful defense attorney.  Boady agrees to represent him because he believes in Pruitt.  Because Max arrested Pruitt and is convinced he killed his wife although the alibi seems solid, Boady and Max are opposite each other.  By page 277, when the events twist and turn and turn again I never saw it coming.  Nor did I expect the ending that  happened.  This to me is a perfect mystery, written by someone very familiar with investigations.  

Pages 216-217 return back to the start of the book with Max on the witness stand.  

An excellent intrigue,  another 5 *****..