Kevin rents office space from Jake Harper, a former Texas defense attorney, who defended indigent clients in capital murder cases. According to Jake, “When people talk about the death penalty, they talk about Texas.”

In spite of Kevin’s determination to avoid murder cases, Jake quickly lands him his first case: defending Joseph Gianforte Jr., of Hoboken, New Jersey. Joey, twenty-four years old, is accusing of following his former girlfriend and fellow law student from New York to Honolulu and killing her. Joey insists he’s innocent. He only wanted Shannon to change her mind and not break up with him; he didn’t even see her. Kevin knows that clients often lie to their attorneys but likes the retainer check and agrees to take the case.

Besides undertaking Joey’s defense as well as the defense of several drug cases, Kevin is starting to adapt to his new locale. But things take an unexpected and potentially dangerous turn when Kevin learns that Joey’s father is associated with organized crime in northern New Jersey.

Legal thrillers are my favorite type of mysteries. According to the dust cover, One Man’s Paradise won a first novel prize. I had high hopes for it. It has some interesting plot twists and turns, but it is not without flaws. The solution to the whodunit comes out of nowhere and the hero-narrator falls short as a character the reader can truly root for. (Not to mention he seems a little dense. How could a former New York attorney not have the least suspicion his client’s family is connected to organized crime? Didn’t he ever watch The Sopranos?)

Kevin claims he’s a changed man: he’s no longer going to be concerned about his public image. That doesn’t mean, however, he’s any less self-absorbed. This is a source of some of my dissatisfaction with the book. There were several times I waited impatiently for Kevin to turn his attention away from himself and back to the mystery. Jake Harper is less important to the story line than he seems set to be in the opening scenes. I found him an interesting character and would have liked to see more.

The Hawaiian setting is often mentioned as Kevin mentally compares Hawaii’s people, scenery, traffic, and legal procedure to New York’s. The story, however, is not dependent on the Hawaiian setting and could have easily been set elsewhere.

The best aspect of the book is the story line. There are enough twists and red herrings to keep the reader turning pages. The author has cleverly inserted a subplot in such a way that it leads to a surprise at the end. The legal maneuverings that are sometimes a major part of legal thrillers play a lesser role here.

The author of One Man’s Paradise is a former New York criminal defense attorney; this is his debut book. It’s hard not to wonder if he decided that the New York criminal defense thing was getting too stressful and thought maybe he’d do the beach bum thing in Hawaii and meanwhile try his hand at writing. Or maybe it was the weather. Whatever. The result is an acceptable legal thriller but not a must-read for fans of this sub-genre.

--Lesley Dunlap