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The Expert
Defending an American computer wizard against charges of treason, lawyer Rebecca Verona faces her former lover in the prosecuting attorney, who claims to possess a computer chip her client sold to the Chinese. Reprint.
512 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 11, 2019
I enjoyed it. Before I read The Expert, I had seen a couple of reviews that commented on this book being too long or wordy or labored, so I was hesitant to start the 20+ hours of the audio book version. I have seen the book categorized as a thriller, but I didn't find it to be yer typical thriller - nobody gets killed, no presidents are kidnapped, there are no terrorists or ex-Navy Seals, no hard-bitten detectives with alcohol problems. It's essentially a well written courtroom drama which works by developing the characters and revealing information in context. The narrative moves along at a decent pace, building the plot gradually and intelligently. Maybe the story could have been told using fewer words and been just as entertaining, but the length was not an issue for me. I thought the ending was a bit of an anticlimax, and I could nitpick about a couple of other things, but overall it worked for me.
December 21, 2021
This author has me confused. I have now picked up 5 of his books. Two of them were so boring I couldn't make it past page 50 and the other three were some of the best reads I can remember. This one is a great story and just a great read. Rebecca Verona is a crack defense attorney David Zukerman is an equally skillful prosecutor. James Perrein is a snotty unlikable defendant up on a charge of near treason for selling a never seen before encryption technology to the Chinese. Great book.
May 27, 2018
A great legal thriller involving the sale of a state of the art data encryption key to the Chinese government by an American company owner. There are plenty of legal twists and turns leading to a startling conclusion that you don't see coming.
December 10, 2019
Good tight legal thriller with detailed factual support for the story. More like. 4.5 star book - will definitely read another Gruenfeld
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September 23, 2009The Expert, by Lee Gruenfeld, B-plus, narrated by Barrett Whitener, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
Rebecca Verona is a young ambitious litigator at a major corporate firm. She is given the opportunity to defend a computer mogul against the criminal offense of selling inscripted technology to the Chinese. Rebecca does not want the case. She and the mogul were once lovers, which resulted in her leaving a truly good man whom she could have loved-coincidentally the prosecuting attorney in the case. Rebecca had learned to her chagrin that the mogul had only used her and her skills to win a court battle and to secure a contract. Now she finds out that he has asked specifically for her as a litigator because he believes that if he can get her to represent him, it will go a good way toward influencing a jury. After all, she hates him but still represents him. Rebecca’s boss in the firm leaves her no choice but to take on the case or lose her chance at becoming partner. Rebecca has to find an expert to show that the chip uncovered by the government does not contain security risk information against the U.S. Only one person will do, and he reluctantly agrees to be the expert even though he hates the mogul as much as Rebecca does. And so we dig through layers and layers to find out, first, whether the chip has dangerous information encoded into it, who created the chip, where is the dangerous information stored on the chip, did the Chinese actually get hold of the information, why did the expert agree to be the expert in the case when he hated the defendant. It’s a page-turning legal thriller but in some ways rather confusing. There are so many layers upon layers of intrigue that the reader can get lost.
Rebecca Verona is a young ambitious litigator at a major corporate firm. She is given the opportunity to defend a computer mogul against the criminal offense of selling inscripted technology to the Chinese. Rebecca does not want the case. She and the mogul were once lovers, which resulted in her leaving a truly good man whom she could have loved-coincidentally the prosecuting attorney in the case. Rebecca had learned to her chagrin that the mogul had only used her and her skills to win a court battle and to secure a contract. Now she finds out that he has asked specifically for her as a litigator because he believes that if he can get her to represent him, it will go a good way toward influencing a jury. After all, she hates him but still represents him. Rebecca’s boss in the firm leaves her no choice but to take on the case or lose her chance at becoming partner. Rebecca has to find an expert to show that the chip uncovered by the government does not contain security risk information against the U.S. Only one person will do, and he reluctantly agrees to be the expert even though he hates the mogul as much as Rebecca does. And so we dig through layers and layers to find out, first, whether the chip has dangerous information encoded into it, who created the chip, where is the dangerous information stored on the chip, did the Chinese actually get hold of the information, why did the expert agree to be the expert in the case when he hated the defendant. It’s a page-turning legal thriller but in some ways rather confusing. There are so many layers upon layers of intrigue that the reader can get lost.
February 29, 2016
This story concerned two lawyers (former lovers) against each other in a jury trial. The defendant is accused of selling to the Chinese a special computer chip that has a code that is unbreakable. The US government is suing because they are worried about national security. There was a great deal of repetitive dialect which was entirely over the heads of anyone except those computer nerds. I struggled to finish the book.
October 14, 2010
A lot of unnecessary detail/filler. Would have been a better if it was shorter. The side-story of the main character was not required. At times, I felt like Gruenfeld was just trying to fill up some extra pages.
August 16, 2012
Surprisingly good read. Some parts were very very wordy and were difficult to get past. All in all I found it an easy read. Verona is bad ass!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews