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Mahogany Row
Attorney Mark McCoy has a credibility problem. Everyone, including his lawyer, thinks he murdered his boss. He had motive, opportunity, and no alibi. His only chance is to remain a fugitive and prove his innocence. Not an easy task with a relentless detective, a killer, and a Goliath law firm out to take him down. The body count rises as he uncovers dark and sinister secrets about his kinky boss, his loyal girlfriend, and his white shoe firm. But the truth may have a high price his life.
215 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 23, 2014
RATING: 3.5
After 8 years of paying his dues by working hard as an attorney at the New York law firm of Ashley, Stepford & Simpson, Mark McCoy is being considered for partnership at the firm and a move closer to “Mahogany Row”, the luxury offices inhabited by the movers and shakers of the firm. Unfortunately, his boss’s body is discovered in Mark’s office; and Mark is the prime suspect. Given the fact that everyone believes that he is the murderer, he is on his own in proving his innocence. His supposed motivation is revealed in a memo from his boss which recommends against Mark’s being named a partner. He discovers that he does have one friend, a woman by the name of Sherry who is a member of the secretarial pool and who is willing to do some legwork to help find the real killer. She has some baggage of her own as far as the firm is concerned.
Mark’s first avenue of investigation is to look through some of the files in the office. As he peruses the files of one of the firm’s main clients, a company by the name of Southgate, he finds that there’s some funny business with the conflict of interest forms that are supposed to be filed for each Southgate case. When he looks into this further, another person is killed and he himself is targeted by a hit and run driver.
The book is wonderfully paced, and the various characters well delineated with several possible suspects convincingly portrayed. Where the book fell apart for me was in its resolution. Keeley basically pulls the surprise rabbit in a hat trick and presents us with a murderer that could not be reasonably suspected by the reader. The epilogue contains a dreadful rendering of the actual murder which should have been edited out of the book since it was way over the top.
This is a first book, and Keeley exhibited a lot of potential. With the exception of the conclusion of the book, it was a very enjoyable read. Although the book is labeled a “legal thriller” and had some legal details within it, it was really more of a standard mystery. Worth trying with the caveat that the ending doesn’t work very well.
After 8 years of paying his dues by working hard as an attorney at the New York law firm of Ashley, Stepford & Simpson, Mark McCoy is being considered for partnership at the firm and a move closer to “Mahogany Row”, the luxury offices inhabited by the movers and shakers of the firm. Unfortunately, his boss’s body is discovered in Mark’s office; and Mark is the prime suspect. Given the fact that everyone believes that he is the murderer, he is on his own in proving his innocence. His supposed motivation is revealed in a memo from his boss which recommends against Mark’s being named a partner. He discovers that he does have one friend, a woman by the name of Sherry who is a member of the secretarial pool and who is willing to do some legwork to help find the real killer. She has some baggage of her own as far as the firm is concerned.
Mark’s first avenue of investigation is to look through some of the files in the office. As he peruses the files of one of the firm’s main clients, a company by the name of Southgate, he finds that there’s some funny business with the conflict of interest forms that are supposed to be filed for each Southgate case. When he looks into this further, another person is killed and he himself is targeted by a hit and run driver.
The book is wonderfully paced, and the various characters well delineated with several possible suspects convincingly portrayed. Where the book fell apart for me was in its resolution. Keeley basically pulls the surprise rabbit in a hat trick and presents us with a murderer that could not be reasonably suspected by the reader. The epilogue contains a dreadful rendering of the actual murder which should have been edited out of the book since it was way over the top.
This is a first book, and Keeley exhibited a lot of potential. With the exception of the conclusion of the book, it was a very enjoyable read. Although the book is labeled a “legal thriller” and had some legal details within it, it was really more of a standard mystery. Worth trying with the caveat that the ending doesn’t work very well.
November 16, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in May 2001.
From the first slightly tongue in cheek paragraph (which could be paraphrased as "I knew I was having a bad day when I found the body of my boss in my office..."), this legal thriller holds the attention. Mark McCoy is soon made aware that he is the chief suspect in the killing. He has an overwhelming motive - as an associate nearing the end of his eight years, he is hoping to become a partner, but a memo on his desk from his boss indicates that instead he is going to have to leave the firm. He has no alibi, and some one is alternately trying to frame him and kill him. Soon he is a fugitive trying to track down the real killer while on the run, and discovering all kinds of dirt about the sexual habits of his boos and the real ethics of the law firm he was working for.
Mahogany Row is a taut, exciting novel, which concentrates on providing its thrills. The background is a little sparse, particularly for someone like myself who has little idea how an American law firm is structured. The plot requires the police to be a little slower than I would have expected, and some of the ideas owe a fair amount to TV series like The Fugitive. Keeley is also a film writer, and this shows in his interest in dramatic action as the mainstay of the novel. The criticisms I have are both small and connected to my taste in thrillers, rather than being problems with the novel, which is extremely enjoyable.
From the first slightly tongue in cheek paragraph (which could be paraphrased as "I knew I was having a bad day when I found the body of my boss in my office..."), this legal thriller holds the attention. Mark McCoy is soon made aware that he is the chief suspect in the killing. He has an overwhelming motive - as an associate nearing the end of his eight years, he is hoping to become a partner, but a memo on his desk from his boss indicates that instead he is going to have to leave the firm. He has no alibi, and some one is alternately trying to frame him and kill him. Soon he is a fugitive trying to track down the real killer while on the run, and discovering all kinds of dirt about the sexual habits of his boos and the real ethics of the law firm he was working for.
Mahogany Row is a taut, exciting novel, which concentrates on providing its thrills. The background is a little sparse, particularly for someone like myself who has little idea how an American law firm is structured. The plot requires the police to be a little slower than I would have expected, and some of the ideas owe a fair amount to TV series like The Fugitive. Keeley is also a film writer, and this shows in his interest in dramatic action as the mainstay of the novel. The criticisms I have are both small and connected to my taste in thrillers, rather than being problems with the novel, which is extremely enjoyable.
July 30, 2008
Mahogany Row is a fairly good book considering it comes from a small press (or is possibly self-published). The editors, however, could have done a more careful job of proofreading. You will find missing words and punctuation marks, as well as reversed, superfluous, and missing quotation marks. This mystery/suspense novel was penned by yet another attorney/writer. It is more or less written in the style of the hard-boiled detective genre, though the protagonist is the primary murder suspect, not the investigator. It has the hard-boiled genre's fast-paced nature, with short sentences, lots of action, the less-than-sophisticated hero, and occasional comic irony. It even has the requisite strange metaphors such as: "His office was Nagasaki after the bomb." The author plays at profundity with an enigmatic homeless character but unfortunately never realizes it. The book is suspenseful and the mystery is fairly well-crafted and certainly interesting; the author keeps you reading. The ending is somewhat of a disappointment, however. The writer seems to have desired a twist, but because it is not as well developed as the central corporate mystery, it is a bit of a let down. The Epilogue is far too violent, sexually explicit, and, like a great many Epilogues, entirely unnecessary. It would have been better to have simply ended the book with the final chapter.
July 29, 2015
Narrated by Dave Hamilton, this legal mystery was a good, if slightly quirky, read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews