I thought this was an incredible story of a lawyer representing a judge in a murder trial The book isloaded with a twists, turns and surprises.

Thought it was an amazing read. A remarkable storyteller!

3.5 stars, actually.

I'm a huge fan of this kind of book - courtroom drama, intricacies of legal strategy and investigations and, of course, a bang-up ending. But while I rather enjoyed the star of the show, attorney Dutch Francis, I was a little underwhelmed by the story and ending. Make that especially the ending.

Reluctantly, Dutch has agreed to represent a New Hampshire judge who's been charged with murdering his wife. As his apprehension grows over taking over responsibility he's not sure he wants, his wife Ginny - a popular TV news anchor - suddenly goes missing. Given a secret they share, her disappearance is even more disturbing, if that's possible; so of course he's distraught and unable to fully focus on the trial he doesn't want to be part of in the first place. The judge assigned to the case, however, is totally unsympathetic and denies his requests for both recusal and continuance of the trial.

The story, then, veers off in two directions: Dutch's investigation and defense of the judge in court and his attempt to save his wife from an unknown fate at the hands of an unknown kidnapper. Before long, he begins to get manila envelopes that convince him she's in real danger - but the police investigation isn't going much of anywhere. Finally, they all start to think it may not be Ginny the kidnapper really wants - it's Dutch. And maybe, just maybe, it's related to his defense of the judge.

All good, yes? Well, mostly. There are not nearly enough courtroom scenes to suit me - someone who, as I said at the beginning, loves learning about strategy and courtroom techniques. Dutch spends far more time arguing with the police, who he thinks are not fully committed to finding his wife, than he does with prosecution witnesses when they take the stand. I'd like to have learned more about what Ginny went through during her kidnapping (the contents of the manila envelopes sent to Dutch offer paltry clues, but otherwise that information is virtually nonexistent). The ending seems abrupt, coming with a decision that almost seems to gloss over everything that both Ginny and Dutch experienced; it's hard for me to believe that any couple would come to terms in such short order with all that happened to them both. Admittedly, I tried really hard not to see a titch of a hot-button political issue peeking through here as well, but I'm willing to accept that's just my imagination going a bit wild.

All that said, for the most part I really enjoyed this book - and for sure, I didn't feel at a disadvantage because I had not read the first two books in this series. It's a solid legal thriller (just without any in-your-face thrills) that kept me entertained and I'm sure will do the same for other readers. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

The description of this book says that an attorney's wife is kidnapped just as he starts a high-profile trial, and that when he is unable to get himself excused, he proceeds under extreme duress. What I thought I would read is the
story of a man behind tormented by his personal life in secret, behind the scenes of a trial; a man desperately trying to find his wife's kidnapper without losing face in court. However, what I very quickly realized is that the situation is instead an extremely unbelievable one where the attorney is up front about his wife being kidnapped and the judge/prosecutor/ect insist he stay on the case while his wife is missing. I cannot imagine a world where one would be allowed to continue acting as a defense attorney while in that kind of personal situation. It's laughable.

That being said, if you can get past that, the story is otherwise well written and interesting. It moves quickly and it's easy to listen to. I would definitely try more from this author I would just hope for a more grounded story.

Able to be read as a standalone legal thriller, Abiding Conviction by Stephen M Murphy is the third in the Dutch Francis series. Defence attorney Dutch Francis is representing a judge accused of poisoning his wife when his own wife disappears. Struggling with the turmoil, his client will not delay the trial and he has to juggle both these demanding tasks. One of the detectives also believes he is responsible for his wife’s kidnapping and so Dutch has no choice but to find her, with only the assistance of his private investigator. The gripping narrative moves between these two competing perils, as tensions build and all apparent leads are seemingly redundant. A most enjoyable legal crime story with a climactic finale, plenty of action and twists, making a four and a half star rating. With thanks to Oceanview Publishing and the author, for an uncorrected advanced reader copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

Abiding Conviction

By: Stephen M. Murphy

Oceanview Publishing

Publish Date 5 July 2022

Mystery & Thriller

#AbidingConviction#NetGalley

100 Book ReviewsProfessional Reader

I would like to thank both NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.

Good Reads Synopsis:

Lawyer Dutch Francis faces an impossible situation—search for your missing wife or defend your high-profile client

Dutch Francis is a defense attorney in the case of a judge accused of killing his wife. Just as the trial is about to begin, Ginnie Turner, Dutch’s wife and TV news broadcaster, goes missing.

Under extreme duress, Dutch tries to extricate himself as the judge’s attorney—or at least postpone the trial. The judge insists that the trial proceed without delay and that Dutch remain his attorney.

Exhausted by the murder trial, Dutch confronts an ineffectual police department, suspicious that he is involved in his wife’s disappearance. He takes matters into his own hands as he struggles to balance both responsibilities—the trial and finding his wife—pushing him to the brink of losing everything he holds dear.

At first Dutch suspects that Ginnie was kidnapped in retaliation for her recent stories about sex scandals. But after receiving bits of her in the mail—fingernails, hair—he realizes the kidnapper’s intent may be to punish him.

Could his defense of the judge be the reason?

Book Review:

I loved this book. I gave it 5 stars. I couldn’t put it down. I just love reading about court trials and this book did a great job with the trial and all that goes with it.

This is the third book in a series, but you don’t have to read the first two to know what is going on. The author did a great job in giving enough information to help you understand the people in the story without having to read the first two books.

This book is about Dutch and what he is going through. He has been married only 6 months when his wife tells him she is pregnant and is thinking of ending the pregnancy because she isn’t ready to be mom and wants more time for her Career. They get into a small argument before he has to go court.

A local judge has hired him to represent him in court since he is charged with the murder of his wife. Dutch did not want to take this case and ask for a huge amount of money hoping the Judge wouldn’t hire, but that didn’t happen.

As the day goes on Dutch and wife agree to talk about the baby and both apologize. Dutch gets home and waits for his wife to come home which never happens. He knows something is wrong because she mentioned to him some threatening phone calls and emails, she has recently received but never thought anything of it. He goes to her work and discovers her car still in the parking lot and she isn’t inside and soon seeing her cell phone on the ground. The police are called, and things go from there.

His wife has been kidnapped and he has a big trial and wants to be able to focus on getting his wife, but his client won’t let him loose and the judge who is trying the case agrees with the client.

Dutch has to divide his time between both and feels conflicted and angry with client. He warns his client he won’t being doing as well as he should because his mind is elsewhere.

The book continues on with the trial and the steps he takes to find his wife. You would have to read the book to found out if the Judge killed his wife and if Dutch finds his wife.

It is a page turner and there are a lot of suspects, and you are trying to figure out who kidnapped his wife. I was surprised and I figured it out just before he did.

I highly recommend you read this book. I will be picking up his other two books.

This book reminded me of all of the law shows from long ago. I guess they still have them. In the 80s and 90s if you watched them you would think that all crimes were solved by whichever occupation was being highlighted. Cops, lab techs, attorneys…they all do it all…alone. So this was a throw back. I was new to the series but the first scene was just a perfect set up for what we would have-an average mystery. They try to bump it up a notch by having his new wife tell him she’s pregnant, she wants to end the pregnancy, and that they will talk about it later….and then she gets kidnapped. All while he is trying a hugely famous case. It was OK but there was nothing here to keep the Digital pages turning.

In the same genre of a John Grisham novel, Abiding Conviction is a legal,thriller. Dutch is trying a major case when his wife goes missing. Most of,the book is him trying to handle the case but find his wife.
My reaction is meh. There’s nothing really that stands out but it’s a decent mystery until, the case is cracked.

Good Court Scenes in Average Whodunit


The marketing and promotion for this book led me to believe that this courtroom mystery would be clever with a twist at the end. Unfortunately, it was not clever and there was no surprise at the end.

Dutch Francis a hard-working defense lawyer is famous for winning cases. The book opens when his lovely, talented TV wife Ginnie, surprises her husband when she tells him that she is pregnant; however, she is not sure she wants this baby. No time for discussion, he had to be in court to defend Judge Garcia who is on trial for killing his wife.

On that very day, Ginnie is kidnapped, and our main character is defending a famous client and desperately trying to find his beloved. The police department allows Dutch to lead his own investigation to uncover the kidnappers and find his wife. He really was better than the police. In fact, a female policewoman, Leary, unprofessionally suspects Dutch of kidnapping and/or killing his wife. She is never reprimanded for her unprofessionalism; she even tells Ginnie’s mother that her son-in-law is probably the perpetrator of the crime.

Defense Attorney Francis shows up every day for the trial and follows any dumb lead on his wife’s kidnapping. There are clues scattered throughout the plot and it was easy to solve both murders early in the book.

Judge Garcia was the most interesting character. The reader was not sure of the circumstances of his wife’s murder and Garcia’s fall from grace as a Judge could have been more impactful.

The court scenes were the usual Prosecutor vs the Defense Attorney. I did find the descriptions of the potential jurors were interesting, but this was not what I expected in terms of excitement or a shocking ending.

My gratitude to Net Galley and Oceanview Publishing for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Abiding Conviction by Stephen Murphy (an author new to me) is an extremely interesting novel about a sitting judge on trial for allegedly murdering his wife and his defense attorney whose wife is kidnapped during the course of the trial. The courtroom scenes are well written and certainly hold the reader’s interest. There are several “red herrings “ thrown in with respect to the party responsible for the kidnapping of the attorney’s wife - all of them believable. The twist at the end came as a complete surprise to me.

I thank NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this novel and look forward to Mr. Murphy’s future books.

I usually love legal thrillers.
This one fell flat.. just found myself skimming it as really wasn't capturing my attention.
It just didn't seem to flow nicely to read.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

This is one of those lawyer does everything stories and I don't buy it. Dutch Francis is working on a murder case that already is making him uncomfortable. Then his wife Ginni, a TV broadcaster, does not arrive home from work. Kidnapped. Dutch is frantic and sleepless but is forced to continue the murder defense. Yet he must act!! We follow Dutch, and his private detective as they run circles around the local police, a scenario I find absurd. The writing is first person and - to my mind - plodding. I read about half of the book before putting it down. You can give this one a miss.

Book # 3 in the Dutch Francis legal thriller

In a few words:

Lawyer Dutch Francis faces and impossible situation: search for your missing wife or defend your high-profile client. Dutch is defending a Judge accusing of killing his wife. Just as the trial is about to begin, his wife Ginnie Turner, a TV broadcaster goes missing...

My thoughts:

What would you do if you were in his shoes?

Courtroom drama and thrillers I absolutely love them. So dialogue oriented and I enjoy reading the banter that usually comes with them. Although this one has some it felt a little short and missed sharpness. Defending your client while worrying about your wife can’t be easy. So the legal scenes went fast and the preliminary hearing happened the next day. Can that be possible in real life? Experts say it doesn’t. Ok. I will give a break considering this is minor.

The story has fillers and the courtroom scenes were short but what gave this book thrills is Ginnie got kidnapped. I would say “Abiding Conviction” has two stories within a story and Dutch Francis happens to be the main character. Ginnie story is well said and exciting as for the Judge, his defense was a bit disappointing.

It may seem that I didn’t like book, far from it, although not perfect this thriller packs one hell of a story in its 293 pages or so. In all, the experience wasn’t bad at all. I enjoyed most parts and stayed with it till the very last page.

Although this book is part of a series it stands well on its own. Will I read more books from this series, indeed I will.

I received a free advanced copy of this book through Netgalley.com and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I love a good legal thriller but this book was a struggle for me. I felt like everything was rushed. Maybe its because I didn't read the first 2 books in this series but I didn't know enough about Dutch to really care much about him and the judge he was defending was a less than sympathetic character. In fact the whole murder case was so ridiculously simplistic I can't imagine it getting to trial, the evidence was so subjective I could see several ways it could have happened. Then there is the kidnapping of Dutch's wife. The police were so incompetent with nothing holding them back it was almost laughable. I knew who had the wife as soon as she was missing and if they had interviewed Dutch and really looked into it they would have too. I also struggled that just as the trial ends Dutch receives his final note from the kidnapper leading him to discover their identity. It was just all a little to neatly wrapped up and simple. I also find it hard to believe that a judge would require an attorney whose celebrity newscaster wife is kidnapped to defend someone of first degree murder. There were just too many things that jumped the shark for me on this one.

Abiding Conviction
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Legal Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 7/5/22
Author: Stephen M. Murphy
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Pages: 320
Goodreads Rating: 3.89
Series: Yes, No. 3 in the Dutch Francis series

Thank you to NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Lawyer Dutch Francis is hired to defend a judge who is accused of murdering his wife. As the trial commences, Dutch’s wife, a local TV personality, disappears and the kidnapper is sending bits of physical evidence as proof that she is alive—all in the middle of a high-profile trial. His heart says, “find your wife”; his profession says, “defend your client.” Can he do both?

My Thoughts: I absolutely love Legal Thrillers and unfortunately, this one fell a little short for me. It was a slow burn mostly throughout the book. The court scenes really have nothing to do with the plot of Ginnie being kidnapped and feel like a filler since Dutch’s profession is a lawyer. The court scenes were not realistic, which is okay for a work of fiction. The characters did not have much depth and that could be due to this being the third book in the series, they may have been more depth in the first two books. I still as able to read as a standalone and understood. The writing style did flow well and I did enjoy the book overall.

After reading the book’s description, I was excited to start reading this novel. And naturally I had some high expectations. Too bad that the novel fell short of my lofty hopes.

Abiding Conviction is the third installment of the Dutch Francis Legal Thriller series. Although it is the third novel, it still can be read as a standalone.

While the novel started out well — laying the groundwork for the courtroom drama, it slowly devolved into a slow and unbelievable narrative. Maybe I’ve watched too many Law and Order and Blue Bloods episodes. So I probably have some strong opinions on the novel’s realism.

The characters are pretty shallow in most aspects. Perhaps they were developed in the earlier novels. But I don’t think that’s the case. What bothered me is that I couldn’t appreciate the “busybody” attitude of the main protagonist, Dutch Francis. Primarily because he kept inserting himself in police matters — taking matters into his own hand. Maybe even hindering the investigations.

The plot does not contain any unexpected twists or turns, and the finale was blasé at best. Abiding Conviction is still a decent read, but I probably won’t be delving further into the series. Two okay stars.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Dutch who is a lawyer is defending a judge who is on trial for killing his wife. During the trial, Durch's wife is kidnapped. It will take everything Dutch has to locate his wife.

Dutch Francis, an attorney, trying a court case of Honorable Carlos Garcia who killed his wife. Ginnie Turner is Dutch Francis's wife who was kidnapped on the day the trial. Will the court case be solved while Ginnie is missing? This is a mind-blowing situation as Dutch carries on being an attorney while trying to find Ginnie. If you like court cases mixed with kidnapping then you will love this book. I'm now looking forward to the next book by Stephen M. Murphy. I would like to thank NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for a copy for an honest review.

The Honorable Carolos Garcia is on trial for murdering this wife. He insists that Dutch Francis be his lawyer even though his area of expertise is not criminal law. Ginnie is his wife and is a news anchor at Channel 9. During the pre-trial, Ginnie is kidnapped. Garcia won't let Francis excuse himself from the case. Now he has a missing wife and a murder trial to try to work through. He gets tormenting items in the mail from the kidnapper. Can he focus on the trial and find his wife? I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

Lawyer Dutch Francis is hired to defend a judge who is accused of murdering his wife. As the trial commences, Dutch’s wife, a local TV personality, disappears and the kidnapper is sending bits of physical evidence as proof that she is alive—all in the middle of a high-profile trial. His heart says, “find your wife”; his profession says, “defend your client.” Can he do both? Brilliant writing and more importantly, riveting reading. This was a brilliant read. Set aside plenty of time to read in without a workday. It had my head spinning….

Abiding Convictions is less a suspense thriller and more a police/courtroom procedural and mystery. The pace was slower and the content had a criminal justice 101 feel to it. Two stories in one, the story lines involved the kidnapping of the protagonist's wife and his ongoing defense of a murder suspect during a very high profile case. He works night and day, attempting to locate his wife and successfully defend his client. The book is readable and kept me engaged. It is the third in the series, so maybe the characters are more flushed out than reading it as a standalone. Thanks #Netgalley and #Abidingconviction for this opportunity.