January 1, 2007
Fans of the film True Believer
will best appreciate law professor Dobbyn's debut, a routine legal thriller with a similar plot. Michael Knight, a junior associate at a high-powered Boston firm, gets asked by a powerful African-American judge, Amos Bradley, to represent his son, Anthony, who has been accused of gunning down a beloved member of the city's Chinese community under cover of a New Year's parade. This assignment brings Knight to the attention of the firm's disgraced legend, Alexis Devlin, who has been keeping a low profile since he was alleged to have participated in jury-tampering to help a client. As the two attorneys search for the truth, Knight ventures into dangerous neighborhoods on the trail of some major league political and judicial corruption. Considering his curriculum vitae—Latino street kid, Harvard law grad and former federal prosecutor—Knight comes across as oddly naïve, while his ignorance of Chinatown's organized criminals doesn't ring true.