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Every law firm has its backroom bench of brilliant workaholic nerds ferocious in their commitment to the law and to their clients. Such a player is Milton Bernstein of Abbott & Windsor. He's highly valued by the partners for his skills, but untested in the courtroom.
Milton's younger brother, Hal, is his polar opposite - strikingly handsome, a high-school baseball legend in St. Louis who was on his way to the major leagues until he destroyed his prospects in a motorcycle accident. Hal had been, and still is, the adored Bernstein brother - worshipped by his mother, his aunts, and the rest of his family, plus all the high-school and college cheerleaders. Milton has learned to live with his lower star-power while Hal unabashedly admires Milton's career and happy marriage.
Neither brilliant nor driven, Hal has to face up to earning a living. For now he's killing time as a lifeguard at an exclusive country club. His days at the pool are mostly filled with women, kids, and fantasies about the hot babe called Cherry.
But the lives of both brothers are about to change. Cherry, the bombshell third wife of St. Louis' most shark-like litigator, Leonard Pitt, unexpectedly turns Hal's advances around. They become lovers. Coincidentally, Milton becomes the attack dog behind litigation to nail Pitt for running an insurance scam on his injured clients.
Tangling with the Pitts is a game-changer for both brothers. Everyone is a tool of someone else. The players' roster widens to include a judge who's nursed a 30-year grudge against Pitt, the judge's astute clerk, and a crooked cop. Then Milton suddenly finds himself fielding Hal's arrest for kidnapping and murder.
Played! is fast-moving, fun and, at its core, a story of brotherly love and loyalty. And baseball.
Milton's younger brother, Hal, is his polar opposite - strikingly handsome, a high-school baseball legend in St. Louis who was on his way to the major leagues until he destroyed his prospects in a motorcycle accident. Hal had been, and still is, the adored Bernstein brother - worshipped by his mother, his aunts, and the rest of his family, plus all the high-school and college cheerleaders. Milton has learned to live with his lower star-power while Hal unabashedly admires Milton's career and happy marriage.
Neither brilliant nor driven, Hal has to face up to earning a living. For now he's killing time as a lifeguard at an exclusive country club. His days at the pool are mostly filled with women, kids, and fantasies about the hot babe called Cherry.
But the lives of both brothers are about to change. Cherry, the bombshell third wife of St. Louis' most shark-like litigator, Leonard Pitt, unexpectedly turns Hal's advances around. They become lovers. Coincidentally, Milton becomes the attack dog behind litigation to nail Pitt for running an insurance scam on his injured clients.
Tangling with the Pitts is a game-changer for both brothers. Everyone is a tool of someone else. The players' roster widens to include a judge who's nursed a 30-year grudge against Pitt, the judge's astute clerk, and a crooked cop. Then Milton suddenly finds himself fielding Hal's arrest for kidnapping and murder.
Played! is fast-moving, fun and, at its core, a story of brotherly love and loyalty. And baseball.
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Published October 10, 2017
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About the author
Michael A. Kahn
25 books44 followersPseudonym for Michael Baron.
Michael Kahn is a trial lawyer by day and an author at night. He wrote his first novel, GRAVE DESIGNS, on a challenge from his wife Margi, who got tired of listening to the same answer whenever she asked him about a book he was reading. "Not bad," he would say, "but I could write a better book than that." "Then write one," she finally said, "or please shut up." So he shut up for a few months--no easy task for an attorney--but finally wrote one.
Kahn is the award-winning author of 11 Rachel Gold novels, the most recent being BAD TRUST, and three stand-alone novels: the recently published PLAYED!, about which Library Journal wrote, "“Fans of quick reads . . . will be well served by this thriller’s fast pace"; THE SIRENA QUEST, which Publishers Weekly praised as “Equal parts rollicking adventure, existential and spiritual quest, and coming-of-(middle)-age tale”; and THE MOURNING SEXTON, a mystery novel under the pen name Michael Baron. His most recent Rachel Gold novel, THE DEAD HAND, was published last fall.
In addition to his day job as a lawyer, he is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches a class on censorship and free expression. Married to his high school sweetheart, he is the father of five and the grandfather of, so far, five.
Michael Kahn is a trial lawyer by day and an author at night. He wrote his first novel, GRAVE DESIGNS, on a challenge from his wife Margi, who got tired of listening to the same answer whenever she asked him about a book he was reading. "Not bad," he would say, "but I could write a better book than that." "Then write one," she finally said, "or please shut up." So he shut up for a few months--no easy task for an attorney--but finally wrote one.
Kahn is the award-winning author of 11 Rachel Gold novels, the most recent being BAD TRUST, and three stand-alone novels: the recently published PLAYED!, about which Library Journal wrote, "“Fans of quick reads . . . will be well served by this thriller’s fast pace"; THE SIRENA QUEST, which Publishers Weekly praised as “Equal parts rollicking adventure, existential and spiritual quest, and coming-of-(middle)-age tale”; and THE MOURNING SEXTON, a mystery novel under the pen name Michael Baron. His most recent Rachel Gold novel, THE DEAD HAND, was published last fall.
In addition to his day job as a lawyer, he is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches a class on censorship and free expression. Married to his high school sweetheart, he is the father of five and the grandfather of, so far, five.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 27, 2017
This book is a quick, fun read about two brothers who went in very different directions. Milton is working as an attorney at a large law firm and usually flies under the radar until he is the lead attorney on a case against another lawyer accused of skimming money from insurance settlements meant to pay clients. Milton's brother Hal was a baseball prospect whose pitching career ended due to an accident and since then he has drifted in life. He is currently working as a lifeguard and has eyes for Cherry, the bombshell wife of the attorney in Milton's case. She turns his advanced onto him and Hal and Cherry start a torrid affair. It ends up with Cherry's murder and Hal being accused of kidnapping and murder.
The story isn't all that realistic nor is it a true mystery as I had it figured out early. However, that is not the intention of this story - it is meant to be fun to read, give the reader into the brothers and how they feel for each other and also to make the reader chuckle a couple times. Picking up this book with that in mind, it certainly delivers on all accounts. I loved the simple charm of Hal, the love of his brother shown by Milton and even too-good-to-be-true advances by Cherry made to a young man who was certainly thinking with only a certain part of his anatomy. Great book to read for a quick chuckle.
The story isn't all that realistic nor is it a true mystery as I had it figured out early. However, that is not the intention of this story - it is meant to be fun to read, give the reader into the brothers and how they feel for each other and also to make the reader chuckle a couple times. Picking up this book with that in mind, it certainly delivers on all accounts. I loved the simple charm of Hal, the love of his brother shown by Milton and even too-good-to-be-true advances by Cherry made to a young man who was certainly thinking with only a certain part of his anatomy. Great book to read for a quick chuckle.
September 23, 2017
It was a quick read and full of dumb manipulative people.
Amusing in parts. I enjoyed the baseball references.
Rachel Gold is mentioned but does not play a part in this one.
I borrowed a copy from the public library.
Amusing in parts. I enjoyed the baseball references.
Rachel Gold is mentioned but does not play a part in this one.
I borrowed a copy from the public library.
October 15, 2017
I've enjoyed every other book by this author. However, he struck out with this one. Way too cheesy, way too juvenile, and way too unrealistic.
October 21, 2017
entertaining though predictable
June 15, 2018
Enjoyable read. Short. Kept my interest
July 27, 2018
Haven’t read Michael Kahn in a long time. Love all the references to St. Louis!
Very interesting title that goes along the story line more ways than one.
Very interesting title that goes along the story line more ways than one.
June 22, 2020
Great
This book just flows. So easily along. That it sweeps the reader right along with it and then races toward a very exciting. finish. A rare thrill and a fun story
This book just flows. So easily along. That it sweeps the reader right along with it and then races toward a very exciting. finish. A rare thrill and a fun story
February 27, 2017
Fun murder mystery with a great cast of goofy characters. Milton is a lawyer who remembers each trivial thing he has learned. His brother Hal is not quite as sharp. When Hal is accused of kidnapping and murder, it is up to Milton to get him free.
DRC from Poisoned Pen Press and Edelweiss
DRC from Poisoned Pen Press and Edelweiss
January 19, 2018
A simple, if somewhat predictable, mystery. The claim it is a courtroom drama, but I say that it is more mystery with the courtroom added in to it. The courtroom is not an intergral part of the book. Kahn's style in this book seems almost 'play like' where at the beginning of each chapter he sets the stage by the way he starts the first paragraph. A different style for this particular reader; one in which I liked.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews