Double Tap
Attorney Paul Madriani defends a highly decorated soldier who is on trial for murder, and unwittingly steps into a maze of secrets and lies that the government - and even this client - would rather leave hidden and undisturbed.
Madriani is faced with arcane ballistics evidence, the so-called double tap - two bullet wounds tightly grouped to a victim's head, from shots that can have been made only by a crack marksman. Madriani's client is an enigma, a career soldier who refuses to talk about his past, though clearly he is a battle-tested pro. The victim was an alluring businesswoman and software tycoon whose empire catered to the military, and the most damning evidence is the weapon that killed her: a handgun used solely in special operations where the double tap is the trademark of the most skilled assassins.
Madriani begins to have new fears about his client, a man who would rather sit on a legal time bomb than talk about his past and get a chance at acquittal. And yet more troubling, Madriani discovers that the victim was involved in a controversial government contract to combat terrorism by combing through the private computer records of millions of American citizens.
Madriani faces a wilderness of mirrors in a courtroom battle where every witness can hide behind "national security," where information is power and digital information is absolute power. It is a war in which the scales of justice are being tipped by evasion, deceit - and murder. Finding the unvarnished truth has never been so elusive - or so dangerous.
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Steve Martini
Steve Martini was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Bay Area and Southern California. An honors graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz, Martini’s first career was in journalism. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles and as a correspondent at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, specializing in legal issues, before gaining his law degree from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.
In 1974 he entered private law practice in California where he appeared in both state and federal courts. During his law career he worked as a legislative representative for the State Bar of California, served as special counsel to the California Victims of Violent Crimes Program, and was an administrative law judge and supervising hearing officer.
Paul Madriani
Paul Madriani consists of fourteen primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
