In each successive novel since Degree of Guilt, Richard North Patterson has experimented with flashbacks and past tragedies to drive the present suspense of his legal thrillers. Silent Witness is, perhaps, his greatest achievement with the technique as his hero, Tony Lord, is haunted by the 27-year-old murder of his high school girlfriend, Alison Taylor.

In the late 1960s, Tony is the star of the Lake City, Ohio, high school football team. But when Alison is found strangled behind her house, even Tony's closest friend, Sam Robb, suspects him. Alison's true killer is never found, and Tony flees his home town to forge a career as a high-powered, high-profile San Francisco criminal attorney and marries a a movie star. Cutting to the present day, Tony is called back to Lake City to defend his old friend. Sixteen-year-old track star Marcie Calder was found dead on the shore of Lake Erie, and Sam, now the overweight assistant principal and track coach of Lake City High, is the accused. A series of scandals slowly erodes Tony's confidence in Sam's innocence as Tony comes to terms with his own troubled past.

As with Patterson's previous work, Silent Witness is a novel with subtle characters who happen to be involved in a compelling (and authentic-seeming) criminal trial. For dedicated Patterson fans, some insight into the life of actress Stacey Tarrant is a special treat. She's Tony's wife in the present world of the novel but was the lover of Senator James Kilcannon before the senator was assassinated. James was the brother of Kerry Kilcannon, the enigmatic presidential candidate at the center of Patterson's 1998 blockbuster, No Safe Place. --Patrick O'Kelley


From Publishers Weekly
Like its predecessors, Patterson's latest novel (after The Final Judgment) evinces endless admiration for the ornateness of the law, and is crowded with complex characters whose troubles will draw readers deeply into their story. This hypnotic tale revolves around a friendship that begins on a high-school football field and is tested half a lifetime later in a Lake City, Ohio, courtroom. Tony Lord, a noted California criminal lawyer, returns to the home of his youth to defend his oldest friend, Sam Robb, against the charge of murdering his 16-year-old mistress. Lord takes the sordid case in part because his own life was nearly shattered when, as a teenager, he was suspected of murdering his own girlfriend. Because he wasn't formally charged, he was never "acquitted" by his neighbors of the brutal killing, which remains unsolved 28 years later. Lord isn't ready for the feelings that assault him in Lake City, or for the resurrection of memories both cherished and hated-like those of his brief affair with the cheerleader who became Sam Robb's wife, or of Sam's past questioning of Lord's innocence. Moving back and forth in time with metronomic patience, Patterson grants these two homicide cases an almost epic grandeur. He examines, in sometimes painful detail, the ways in which the friendships of youth can pass into personal mythology and skew adult judgment. But he is at his dramatic finest when, at last, he gives the emotions of these characters, who are connected by a lifetime of love and resentment, full reign in the courtroom. These are the scenes that his fans will anticipate most eagerly, and they are as explosive and revealing as anyone could wish. 400,000 first printing; Literary Guild main selection; simultaneous Random House Audio. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When Tony Lord, a successful San Francisco lawyer, returns to his hometown after 27 years to defend a high school friend, he plunges into a past he thought long buried. His former best friend, Sam, now a high school vice principal, is suspected of having murdered a teenage girl with whom he had had an affair. For Tony, this murder is strangely reminiscent of the brutal, unsolved strangulation he was suspected of while a high school senior. The suspense builds throughout the trial, but instead of a startling conclusion, the book ends quite predictably. Patterson, author of The Final Judgment (Random, 1995) and Degree of Guilt (Audio Reviews, LJ 3/1/93), seems to write primarily for those mystery lovers looking for a fast-moving plot with plenty of sex and violence, while caring little for verbal interest or nuance. Most of the prose sounds flat and reportorial. TonyR Award-winning actor Boyd Gaines reads competently but fails to energize the tired story. The sound quality is excellent. Appropriate for popular fiction collections.?Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at GeneseoCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Tony Lord, a high-profile defense attorney, is summoned to represent his childhood friend in a murder trial. Reluctant to leave the comforts of home, Tony nonetheless feels compelled to go back to his small hometown in Ohio, where 17 years earlier he had his life turned upside down. Tony and Sam Robb were best friends and teammates in all sports. The night after they won the football championship, Tony was accused of murdering his girlfriend, Alison. Tony's family sought out the best lawyer to defend the accused boy; Saul Ravin, with his expert legal mind, soon became Tony's inspiration to pursue a legal career. Tony gets in touch with Ravin again to help defend Sam, who, ironically, finds himself accused of murdering a young woman. Silent Witness is more than a typical legal thriller; it is a story about the growth of two men and how each one deals with and subsequently changes after experiencing the anguish and the introspection that come from being accused of murder. Given Patterson's remarkable popularity, this fascinating tale of life, love, and loss should be in high library demand. Mary Frances Wilkens


Midwest Book Review
Any not already familiar with the compelling magic of this author should find this a rich, involving account which tells of a seventeen-year-old implicated in a murder which is never solved. Years later the famous lawyer returns to the nightmare town of his youth to help a friend who faces very similar murder charges - bringing to life the pain of past failures and the real potential of future danger. Patterson's novel blends exquisite legal tension with strong characterization.


Review
"This generation's best writer of legal thrillers . . . His strongest fiction to date."
--Entertainment Weekly

"Enthralling . . . The denouement is powerful."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Intense courtroom drama . . . As startling as the bang of a gavel."
--People

A Main Selection of The Literary Guild


Review
"This generation's best writer of legal thrillers . . . His strongest fiction to date."
--Entertainment Weekly

"Enthralling . . . The denouement is powerful."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Intense courtroom drama . . . As startling as the bang of a gavel."
--People

A Main Selection of The Literary Guild


Book Description
"THIS GENERATION'S BEST WRITER OF LEGAL THRILLERS . . . HIS STRONGEST FICTION TO DATE."
--Entertainment Weekly

Attorney Tony Lord left his hometown and the bitter memories of his girlfriend's murder behind. Now, twenty-eight years later, he's pulled back to Lake City to defend his closest high school friend against a charge of homicide.

"ENTHRALLING . . . THE DENOUEMENT IS POWERFUL."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

Sam Robb, the married father of two, is a local football legend. But he was also the last to see sixteen-year-old Marcie Calder alive, and as shocking forensic evidence at the trial reveals, he is the father of her unborn child.

"INTENSE COURTROOM DRAMA . . . AS STARTLING AS THE BANG OF A GAVEL."
--People

Probing the darkest recesses of love and friendship, Lord will discover things too disturbing to ignore--that Sam wasn't the only one in Lake City with a motive for killing Marcie, that small-town secrets can hide devastating betrayals, and that the past has a way of repeating itself . . . even in murder.

A MAIN SELECTION OF THE LITERARY GUILD


From the Publisher
13 1.5-hour cassettes


From the Inside Flap
Attorney Tony Lord left his hometown and the bitter memories of his girlfriend's murder behind. Now, twenty-eight years later, he's pulled back to Lake City to defend his closest high school friend against a charge of homicide.

Sam Robb, the married father of two, is a local football legend. But he was also the last to see sixteen-year-old Marcie Calder alive, and as shocking forensic evidence at the trial reveals, he is the father of her unborn child.

Probing the darkest recesses of love and friendship, Lord will discover things too disturbing to ignore--that Sam wasn't the only one in Lake City with a motive for killing Marcie, that small-town secrets can hide devastating betrayals, and that the past has a way of repeating itself . . . even in murder.


From the Back Cover
"This generation's best writer of legal thrillers . . . His strongest fiction to date."
--Entertainment Weekly

"Enthralling . . . The denouement is powerful."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Intense courtroom drama . . . As startling as the bang of a gavel."
--People

A Main Selection of The Literary Guild


About the Author
Richard North Patterson studied fiction writing with Jesse Hill Ford at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has written eight novels, including the international bestsellers Degree of Guilt and Eyes of a Child. The Final Judgment is being developed as a miniseries by NBC. Until recently a trial lawyer, Patterson lives with his wife, Laurie, and their family in San Francisco and on Martha's Vineyard.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Two days before her seventeenth birthday, Marcie Calder killed herself; died in a fall; or was murdered.

A half hour from landing in Steelton, Anthony Lord reviewed what little he knew. From the pictures in the newspaper, Marcie appeared dark and slight and pretty. She was the oldest daughter of a family with three girls; a solid B student at Lake City High School; an observant Catholic who was a member of Tony's old parish, Saint Raphael's. The Steelton Press described her as shy; her best friend, Janice D'Abruzzi, interviewed after the funeral, said that she had not dated anyone special. The newspaper accounts of the grief counseling that followed, a chance for her fellow students to face what had happened, told Tony less about Marcie than about the feverish contagion of teenage sadness, the grim resolve of the town to cope with the inexplicable. Not since the murder of Alison Taylor, Principal Burton said, had Lake City suffered such a tragedy. The thing he most remembered about Marcie struck Tony Lord as rather sad: that she was the fastest girl on the track team and, when competing, ran with a joy and abandon that was beautiful to watch.

Four days prior to her death, in her last competition as a runner, Marcie had done poorly. Afterward, her teammates recalled, she was listless, unresponsive. On the following morning, the police had found her on the beach below Taylor Park, a ribbon of blood on her head and cheek. From the condition of the body, it was plain that she had died sometime during the night. No one knew how.

There were several theories. The drop to the beach from the cliff above was more than ninety feet; from the mud on her blue jeans, and the marks on the cliff itself, it appeared that Marcie had fallen. But a rock on the beach yielded samples of Marcie's blood and hair. The man who had taken her to the park that night--the last person to admit seeing her alive--was not available for comment. Her track coach, Sam Robb, the assistant principal of Lake City High School.

For a final moment, Tony studied the newspaper photograph of Marcie Calder and, next to it, that of Alison Taylor. He could never look at Alison's picture, Tony realized, without feeling the same rush of grief and loss, as fresh as yesterday.

He put the paper in his leather briefcase and wondered how, after twenty-eight years, Sam Robb's wife would seem to him.



They did not, at first, talk about Marcie Calder.

Sue drove the Ford Taurus away from the airport toward Lake City, through housing developments and shopping malls that Tony, squinting in the sun of a bright spring morning, recalled as flat green fields. What Tony wanted most to know--how she was, what her life with Sam had been until now--were things he did not ask. But eliciting more routine facts seemed to help them both. Their two kids, Sam junior and Jennifer, were both out of college. Young Sam, never the athlete his father had hoped for, was studying for an MBA at Kansas University; Jenny taught preschool in Florida. Sue had finished her degree in library science; she worked part time at the Lake City Public Library, helping with the children's section. Sue's tone seemed almost normal; it was as though, if she kept talking, her humiliation would not surface. She did not mention Sam.

"How's the town?" Tony asked. "Still the same?"

"To look at it, except the empty lots are filled with houses now. But things have changed beneath the surface--we have drugs at high school; Protestants don't hate Catholics anymore; and about every other family is divorced or has both parents working. The kids don't have to go parking now; they can make love after school, in the privacy of their parents' home. . . ." She stopped abruptly; Tony did not have to guess at her thoughts. Softly, she added, "It's still small, Tony. At a time like this, you feel how small it is."

For a moment, the present slipped away, and Tony was back in a crowded high school gym.

"Killer, killer . . ."

"The Taylors," he asked. "Are they still alive?"

"Yes." Sue gazed fixedly at the road. "I don't know how you remember them. But to me they look like bitter old people, serving out their lives." She paused for a moment. "Katherine Taylor told my mother, only four or five years ago, that there has never been a day since Alison died that they don't remember. When I think of Marcie Calder's parents, I think of that."

Tony felt his heart go out to her. At length, he asked, "How is he, Sue?"

Her fingers seemed to tighten on the steering wheel. "Scared," she said. "You know what that's like."

Something in Tony resisted the comparison. "All I know is what it was like for me."

Sue was quiet for a moment. "He could be charged with murder," she said in flat voice. "Or, if he's lucky, all that we'll have to worry about is the end of his career as a teacher. Unless he can explain to the school board what he was doing in Taylor Park, at night, with a girl on his track team."

What had Sam told her? Tony wondered. "If he takes my advice as a lawyer," he answered, "Sam won't say anything to the school board. Not until we see what the county prosecutor does about her death."

Sue did not answer. The roads became narrow; at the edge of a field, Tony saw the first familiar landmark--the white spire of Saint Barnabas Episcopal, where Alison's funeral had been held. Then they passed a white wooden sign, not unlike the one Tony remembered: "Welcome to Lake City, Home of the Lakers. Population 15,537."

The next few miles were strange. It had been so long that, for an instant, this seemed like entering a place Tony had seen only in pictures. What hit him first was nostalgia and then remembered trauma--feelings from before and after Alison's death--followed by the sudden superstitious certainty that he should not have returned. Quietly, he said, "I never thought I'd come back here."

"I know."

They took a curve in the narrow road, past an elementary school and some wood-frame houses, and then Tony saw something that had not been there before--a large wrought-iron gate to the entrance of a development of brick ranch houses. The contractor had left just enough maple trees to justify the iron lettering above the gate: "Maple Park Estates."

In spite of himself, Tony turned. And then he felt Sue watching him.

"Remember?" she asked.

What he felt, Tony realized, was a rush of pain and sweetness, surprise at the power of memory, the immediacy of his youth. "Remember?" he said softly. "It was the sweetest thing that had ever happened to me."

Sue smiled a little. "If I'd known that, Tony, I'd have made you do it twice."

As they drove on, silent, Tony felt his unease return, the moment slip away. More than being in Lake City, this came from thinking of Sam Robb again--whoever he might have become.

Reaching the town square, Tony saw the police station. "I have a favor to ask you," he said after a time. "As a lawyer, I suppose. Before I see Sam."

"What is it?"

Tony turned to her. "Could you take me to Taylor Park?"

FROM OUR EDITORS

Lawyer Tony Lord returns to his childhood town, but it's not a pleasant homecoming in the least. He's back because his boyhood friend, now a schoolteacher, is accused of murdering a pregnant student. Lord must not only face a heated courtroom struggle and an enraged community but also his traumatic past: He himself was suspected of murdering his girlfriend in a case that to this day remains unsolved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Silent Witness, is a story of rivalry, friendship, and loss, and how the tragedies of youth can change the course of our adulthood. It begins in 1967, in a small Midwestern town scarcely touched by the tumults of the decade.

Seventeen-year-old Tony Lord, Lake City's star athlete, seems destined for great things. His driving ambition to move far beyond the narrow world of his parents and his hometown is precisely what attracts Alison Taylor, the beautiful and enigmatic daughter of the town's leading family, and it is what sets Tony apart from his two closest friends: Sam Robb — mercurial and charismatic, his only rival for athletic honors — and Sam's girl, Sue Cash, whose affection for Tony may mask something more.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Like its predecessors, Patterson's latest novel (after The Final Judgment) evinces endless admiration for the ornateness of the law, and is crowded with complex characters whose troubles will draw readers deeply into their story. This hypnotic tale revolves around a friendship that begins on a high-school football field and is tested half a lifetime later in a Lake City, Ohio, courtroom. Tony Lord, a noted California criminal lawyer, returns to the home of his youth to defend his oldest friend, Sam Robb, against the charge of murdering his 16-year-old mistress. Lord takes the sordid case in part because his own life was nearly shattered when, as a teenager, he was suspected of murdering his own girlfriend. Because he wasn't formally charged, he was never "acquitted" by his neighbors of the brutal killing, which remains unsolved 28 years later. Lord isn't ready for the feelings that assault him in Lake City, or for the resurrection of memories both cherished and hated-like those of his brief affair with the cheerleader who became Sam Robb's wife, or of Sam's past questioning of Lord's innocence. Moving back and forth in time with metronomic patience, Patterson grants these two homicide cases an almost epic grandeur. He examines, in sometimes painful detail, the ways in which the friendships of youth can pass into personal mythology and skew adult judgment. But he is at his dramatic finest when, at last, he gives the emotions of these characters, who are connected by a lifetime of love and resentment, full reign in the courtroom. These are the scenes that his fans will anticipate most eagerly, and they are as explosive and revealing as anyone could wish. 400,000 first printing; Literary Guild main selection; simultaneous Random House Audio. (Jan.)

Library Journal

As usual, Patterson delivers suspense for the new year. Boyhood friends Tony and Sam are torn apart when Sam is accused of murder. Years later, lawyer Tony returns home to defend Sam against similar charges.

Library Journal

As usual, Patterson delivers suspense for the new year. Boyhood friends Tony and Sam are torn apart when Sam is accused of murder. Years later, lawyer Tony returns home to defend Sam against similar charges.

Entertainment Weekly

This generation's bst writer of legal thrillers... His strongest fiction to date.

People Magazine