In a no-holds-barred condemnation of criminally corrupt politicians colluding with law enforcement to satisfy personal ambition, James Sheehan delivers a fierce and masterful piece of work. Never mind that it's his first novel -- I haven't enjoyed a legal thriller so much since John Grisham's "The Rainmaker," making this, for me, quite a territorial marker for a new author.

His story revolves around poor Rudy Kelly whose olive skin, black shiny hair and chiseled face are enough to cause young and dangerous Lucy to set her sensual eyes on him. With her small, tightly packed body dressed in dungaree short-shorts and clinging tank top, she goes to pick up some groceries in the convenience store where he works. She's thinking of herself as a lure on a line -- an appropriate image for the small town of Bass Creek, Florida in January 1986.

The fish strikes. As soon as Rudy is off work, he's reeled into Lucy's trailer home at her invitation, and Lucy's all warm and cuddly waiting for him. She either doesn't realize or doesn't care that Rudy's a little slow in the mental department. He more than makes up for it in a pleasing personality and good looks. He just needs a little urging and direction to get things going. Which is very much his way and his accomodating manner is about to get him into a world of trouble.

Not because he actually makes love to Lucy, but largely because he doesn't. Things don't go right when he tries and, in his klutzy way, winds up cutting himself on a beer mug as he dashes for the door. Shortly after he's gone, her regular boyfriend, Geronimo Cruz comes calling and asking about her previous visitor. His lovemaking goes farther than Rudy's but he's pissed when she lies to him about Rudy. You don't want to piss off a psychopathic degenerate. In the midst of her ecstasy, he pulls a knife and slashes her throat.

Enter the two detectives of the Bass Creek police, Del Shorter who collects forensic evidence to the best of his limited ability, and Sergeant Wesley Brume, a short, fat grunt of an ex-marine who runs the show and protects his turf like a little emperor. Just the kind of lawman who would seize on Rudy as the killer and never let go, even if it meant suppressing evidence, which he does in a conspiracy with Clay Evans IV, Cobb County state attorney. Talk about symbiotic benefit, Clay needs a big legal victory as a springboard to higher office. What's more, he has the manipulative skills to make it happen, even if he has to climb in bed with a scuz ball cop like Wes Brume bringing him a framed up case.

This whole enterprise is about ambition.

Rudy is first represented by firebrand Tracey James, an effective lawyer who is just too mercenary to see it through; and the drunk Cobb County public defender who loses a case that's clearly very weak, and gets his client sent to Death Row. Before Rudy's executed in the electric chair, however, Tracey James uncovers evidence that could turn him free and is killed in a car "accident" for her dedication.

All of which is preliminary to the appearance of the hero of the piece, Jack Tobin, one of the seniors at Tobin, Gleason and Gardner, a 100-man Miami law firm. At the top of the heap and in the middle of the pressure cooker, this level of success is not what he wants any longer. Jack is a "Florida cracker at heart," and he pines for his roots, in Cobb County. When he makes it happen, and the local case of Rudy Kelly approaching execution is brought to his attention at a time when all the appeals seems to have been exhausted and proven futile, it seems just about the right thing for him to take on, for a variety of reasons.

Law, of course, is a process, and Sheehan, a trial lawyer who has practiced law in Tampa and St. Petersburg and who came to national attention when he was a legal representative for the Terri Schiavo family at the start of the landmark case, takes us through this legal thriller with all the knowledge and experience that comes from his 28 years in the system. He brings to bear intuitively descriptive story telling of satisfying depth. He's a writer who can well substantiate that no legal strategy goes as planned or expected. The element of surprise sticks to the trial advocate like a shadow that's forgotten until it falls all over you, and your case is all but lost in darkness.

But, he shows us, too, that justice is somehow often achieved despite the setbacks and vagaries, though not always in the form envisioned at the beginning. Lives go on, with the living paying homage to the decent dead.

Sheehan's taut and well paced novel demonstrates how the American legal system can be played for evil purpose like a Las Vegas casino. It combines depth and detail with brilliant thriller structure. Perhaps his greatest achievement here is his absolute clarity in exposing character motivation, a skill that is as effective for a good trial attorney as it is for a mystery writer. His handling of the steps in the judicial process is a model of clarity. The only area in which he needs work is in the relationships outside the case study, particularly in his personal, private, romantic dialogue.

His inclusion of a complex love relationship enriches the character of his central figure, and the story itself. The basis for it is introduced in a series of flashbacks that alternate with the main story line in order to keep his late-appearing characters alive. Here, we learn that he earned the encomium "Mayor of Lexington Avenue" from childhood friend Mikey Kelly as they grew up in NYC.

But weakness shows up principally in dialogue overexpression -- perhaps the sign of a first novelist. Though forgiveable, a few moments stand out against the tight accuracy elsewhere. An example:

"...when they were home and in bed she watched him toss and turn all night. Time was running out and the pressure was becoming overwhelming. At one point, she heard him mumbling in his sleep and leaned over to listen to the words:
"Don't give up! Don't ever give up!' she heard Jack telling himself."

Mr. Sheehan, trust me... this kind of in-his-sleep baloney is pulp fiction overemphasis. You don't need it. Trust your better instincts.

Discounting that small element which will probably disappear in his future work, Sheehan, a writer of so much depth and creativity, is picking up the literary reins that Grisham has allowed to go slack many-a-book ago.