O processo

by D.W. Buffa

O advogado criminalista Joe Antonelli, depois de passar um tempo afastado dos processos, volta a advogar em dois casos de assassinato: primeiro como promotor especial, depois como advogado de defesa. Antonelli é instigado pelo seu colega e amigo juiz Horace Woolner, a atuar como promotor num caso aparentemente sem esperança. O popular advogado Marshall Goodwin é acusado pelo assassino condenado Travis Quentin de tê-lo pago para matar sua esposa, Nancy. Não há testemunhas para corroborar a versão de Quentin, apesar de ele - dias antes do crime - ter recebido de uma femme fatale um envelope selado com dez mil dólares e informações sobre o paradeiro de Nancy. Os 'insights' cínicos de Buffa sobre as exigências da arte da promotoria - a necessidade de acreditar que o acusado é culpado, a urgência em transformar o julgamento numa rancorosa competição com o defensor - conferem às cenas de tribunal maior densidade intelectual e um ritmo de suspense. Minutos após o primeiro caso ser resolvido, Antonelli se oferece como voluntário para defender Alma Woolner, esposa de seu amigo Horace, acusada de assassinar o bissexual e playboy da sociedade, Russell Gray, suspeito de ter sido seu amante. 'O processo' leva o leitor aos sombrios recessos dos tribunais e aos bastidores das leis e dos crimes, onde quem busca a verdade pode encontrar muito mais do que procura.

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

D.W. Buffa (full name: Dudley W. Buffa) was born in San Francisco and raised in the Bay Area. After graduation from Michigan State University, he studied under Leo Strauss, Joseph Cropsey and Hans J. Morgenthau at the University of Chicago where he earned both an M.A. and a Ph. D. in political science. He received his J.D. degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Buffa was a criminal defense attorney for 10 years and his seven Joseph Antonelli novels strive to reflect, from his own experience, what a courtroom lawyer does, the way he (or she) thinks, and the way he feels about what he does.

Buffa had been writing for pleasure for many years when Henry Holt and Co. decided to publish his first novel, The Defense, in 1997. The week it was published, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, the literary critic of the New York Times, called The Defense ‘an accomplished first novel" which ‘leaves you wanting to go back to the beginning and read it over again."

The Defense was followed by The Prosecution and then The Judgment, which was one of the five books nominated in 2002 for the Edgar Award as best novel of the year. While the first three novels are set in Portland, the author's fourth novel, The Legacy, takes place in San Francisco and is as much a political thriller as it is legal thriller. Star Witness tells the story of Stanley Roth, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, who is charged with murder of his famous movie star wife.

Breach of Trust, published in 2004, was considered by one critic as "one of the few books that fifty years from now will really matter." It offers readers a scintillating look at Washington politics. Buffa's seventh Joseph Antonelli novel, Trial by Fire, was released in 2005; in this latest Antonelli book, the focus is on the media and the role that television "Talking heads" increasingly play in very high profile criminal cases. Publishers Weekly says of Trial by Fire, "In this intelligent, gripping legal thriller... fast moving dialogue and fine sense of characterization keep the reader hanging on for the ride."

The author's last several novels reflect a subtle shift in storyline from D.W. Buffa's original 'judicial' arena into the the broader one of politics. Buffa has built a new series around protagonist Senator Bobby Hart, an Antonelli-type everyday hero of strong moral fiber who is willing to take on "The Establishment" for the betterment of his constituents...

D.W. Buffa lives in Northern California.