The main character is a flawed hero which draws me in from the beginning. I love that the characters that were close to him saw the hero and not the flaws. The story kept me interested in waiting to find out what he had done that was unforgivable to himself. The case he was solving had enough twists and turns that it kept me interested throughout. I would highly recommend this book.

A very odd book. A high flying legal graduate from Yale spends his time pleading out of state parking tickets. On a whim he attends a reunion and is called to defend his old classmate when he is accused of murder. And that's when things get very strange.

The Traffic Lawyer appears to be a legal thriller, but actually veers towards science fiction. Yet it's a strangely compelling ,, if not totally satisfying, read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Roland Media for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

DNF. This was all over the place. Chapter one, there's a potential client who just...what, disappears? Aldair is speaking to him then he's on his way to his apartment? What happened? And it didn't get any clearer the more I read. Interesting premise from the description but my head was spinning.

I really tried to get into this book but just couldn't. I wanted to like it (I love a legal thriller) but it was silly - and too many secrets we weren't privvy to which just got frustrating. In the end I gave up - sorry.

NetGalley sent me a e-book by Norval Ecir. A lawyer graduates for a prestigious law school for reasons known only to him decides to only practice traffic law. At a class reunion he runs into a few friends, one of them is in trouble and wants the main character to represent him. Seem a little out of the main characters depth but he is encouraged to take the case and is promised help defending his friend. I like the writers stye. The dialog between characters is real and not stunted, it flows. There are a few tangential plots that seem unnecessary in the telling of the story. I kept waiting for them to all come together. Still, I really liked this book.

I am grateful to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Traffic Lawyer. As someone whose professional life closely aligns with the book’s subject matter, I was eager to dive in. However, my experience was mixed.

One of the primary issues I encountered was the book’s erratic pacing. The story frequently jumps from scene to scene without smooth transitions, disrupting the narrative flow and making it challenging to follow. This abruptness made the plot feel disjointed.

Additionally, the introduction of numerous characters led to a loss of focus in the storyline. With so many individuals to keep track of, the narrative often felt cluttered and unfocused, making it difficult to stay invested.

Also, the book seemed to suffer from an overload of ideas. Rather than honing in on a few central themes and exploring them thoroughly, the story attempted to tackle too many concepts at once.

Despite these drawbacks, there were aspects of The Traffic Lawyer that I enjoyed. Aldair George and Laine stood out as particularly compelling characters. Their development and interactions brought a much-needed sense of clarity and engagement to the story.

Overall, I would rate this book a 3/5.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This had me to start - the idea of a terrible lawyer going back to his reunion and ending up embroiled in a huge lawsuit when his former best friend is set up for a crime he didnt commit. However, it also lost me about a fifth of the way in, when it became apparent that this was not the actual plot and, instead, the author had tried to cram multiple stories together to come out with…this.

Shapeshifting, genetically modified humans, transphobia, an idiotic lawyer who we are reminded has set the bar in every state at least once per chapter and inexplicable connections that just simply make no sense… this book is a lot. The character of Justin feels like the author knew what he wanted to do with him but simply had to remind us of his existence throughout and, honestly, it made it clear that he would be a main catalyst to the ending.

Most of the stars here come from the fact that it was short (and yet somehow also very, very long) and for Johan who felt like a character from Arrested Development. In hindsight, he was reminiscent of Dwight from Scary Movie 2. Sadly, that was a highlight.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of The Traffic Lawyer by Norval Eric.

This book had such a fun and interesting background idea. An ex-superstar Yale law graduate has become something of a failure by simply handling out-of-state speeding tickets. When attending his class reunion (something he had no intention to do, at first), he ends up representing his ex-bff who is accused of murder. Cool right? Well yeah, the premises were setting you up for a great story...

The execution, however, was very poor 😩. The story is all over the place, and the plot is hardly believable. The mystery/crime aspect of the novel is borderline SCI-FI. Actually, it's not borderline SCI-FI it IS. And while I am a big fan of SCI-FI, the injection of the genre did not work here.

There are also technically 3 to 4 plot lines at the same time, but they all 'converge' at the end wrapped in a pretty if not clumsy bow 🎀 . The whole thing is seriously messy, and I'm surprised that the author's team didn't try to reign in all of this. The dialogues were hardly credible and most characters felt very caricature-y and were just not likable.

On top of all that, the background idea I thought was great just became annoying. The constant reminder of how amazing he was, how great Yale Law School is etc. I also wonder if the author is aware of a little thing called Bar Reciprocity. If you know any lawyers, even ones from Yale Law 👀, you know that they don't just pass 40 bar exams for fun.

Unfortunately, this book was incredibly messy and poorly executed. 1.5⭐️ for me but I'm rounding it up to 2⭐️ for GoodReads and NetGalley.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was just simply not it...like at all. I'm very sorry as I know that authors work hard at perfecting books and take a lot of pride in what they write, BUT this book was so dull and so boring. I was waiting and waiting (cue Spongebob "4 hours later") for anything exciting or interesting to happen and it just never came.

This book has a long way to go in editing before full publishing, if you ask me.

The authors intention was good but the story just fell flat for me. I feel like some of the storyline was above me and the characters were underdeveloped. I tried really hard to get into this book and love it because the description caught my attention. This book being considered a legal thriller was a bit off the mark due to lack of thrills.

I thought the plot was fun although a bit weird. However I ended up feeling more confused by storytelling than anything towards the end. It could use a little more clarity.

Thanks to Roland Media Distribution for allowing me to read this book and submit a review.

“Some people smile with their eyes; Death shrugged with them.”
In this darkly hilarious mystery romp, Death enters the story as a character, and makes appearances at staggered intervals in the story.

Next enters the protagonist, Aldair George. Aldair is an enigma – and not just because his last name and first name sound as if they should be reversed. Following a stellar academic stint at Yale Law School, his real-life legal career has sputtered before it ever had the chance to fall flat. Barely able to pay the rent for his sparsely furnished office, Aldair not only doesn’t take on felony cases; he never sees the light of a courtroom, handling exclusively out-of-state traffic cases in which all of his clients are guilty.
Then, in the span of two days, he experiences a lapse of good judgment and actually answers two calls placed to his cell phone. The first is from a lead-footed college student who irrationally insists on going to trial on a speeding charge. The other call is from his old law school buddy, who has built an impressive career with a powerful, national firm but who has just been charged with murder and who, incredibly, insists that Aldair take his case.

The law firm, seemingly all powerful and all-knowing, pushes buttons and pulls strings on the book’s many characters (including Aldair), all of whom seem to be connected to one or more of the others. The author peppers his plot narrative with chess analogies and philosophical ruminations on the role of law in society, everyday human relations, and everything else in between.

Readers who favor a more deliberate, procedural pace are likely to get a case of literary motion sickness from the helter skelter turns of both action and logic. Readers who are highly caffeinated and who thrive on intense (and hurried) detail analysis will get their fix.

The author balances out the story’s darkness with ironic humor, the latter generated largely from Aldair’s self-effacing, hopeless-but-not serious world view and from his interaction with his unfailingly loyal and gorgeous girlfriend who sticks close by his side throughout (and who possesses no small amount of skill in the martial arts). The Traffic Lawyer has plenty of heart, even if some of its dots are not always clearly connected.

This book was quite interesting and had so much suspense and action. Unfortunately I lost interest towards the end. I found the whole DNA and godfather portion to be confusing. Killing Paul just because of his eyes was ridiculous especially since color contacts exist and basically who was really able to tell. Why did Tara get away with what she did made no sense to me. I am glad they included Julie murder at the end since it became important to me after I found out Lanie was her sister. 3.75/4 stars

This book had me HOOKED so early on. First of all, beginning with a chapter from Death's perspective was the perfect way to rope me into the book. Dispersing those chapters throughout the book was equally fascinating. I loved the main character (which may end up being an unpopular opinion), because he was finally an attorney who was not doing some incredibly exciting work and was taking the easy way out of practicing law. My only reason for giving four stars (which would've been 4.5 stars if that was allowed) is because there were arguably too many plot lines going on. I was simply getting confused by the second half of the book because the book is constantly shifting to different issues. Overall, the book is incredibly well written and an outstanding first book for this author. I'm very excited to see what else is to come!

this was an ok book, it needed something to fix some of the things. I could see where this was going on thought it could have improved. I would be interested in reading more from Norval Ecir.

I really could not get through this book, there was so much about it that was just unlikeable. It definitely needs work before publishing.

3⭐
Spice Rating - NIL

WOW, I'm a bit confused. Actually, very confused. I don't know whether it was the plot or the writing, but the execution was not up to par.
I have no complaints about the plot <spoiler>(except for the shapeshifting embryos part, which seemed a bit out of place in a crime thriller)</spoiler>, it was a good plot but the implementation and pacing left a lot to be desired in the book. As we say, a great idea should be backed by even greater execution.

The characters were lackluster. The cross connections, revelations and plot twists left my head spinning as there were no rhyme or reason to them. The dialogues seemed a bit mechanical and Lainey's character in general was not my favorite.

Overall, I feel that with a little bit more refinement, the story could have been made much more captivating, believable and engaging. I do have good expectations from the author moving forward.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
<i>Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This was an ARC that I had received from the author (Norval Ecir), the publisher (Roland Media Distribution) and the fine folks at NetGalley in return for an honest review.

To be 100% honest, upon finishing this book, I found that the author had started out with good intentions and a good premise but then tried to bring so many tangents together that the book ended up a giant cluster. I wish the action was not only in the first half of the book but also more in the second half, i found that we got so much backstory towards the end. the twists kept coming in the last half which i found a little bit unrealistic. the story is also a little complicated (which is not bad), but makes it slightly difficult to follow what exactly is going on.

This is supposed to be a legal thriller, but it was dull and uninspired. The characters were rather 2D and I could not relate what I was reading to anything due to lack of description. As though they were merely words on a page. The premise of The Traffic Lawyer is not an original one - once a hotshot Yale Law student, Aldair George is now a washed-up small town traffic lawyer who feels compelled to defend his best friend from Yale Law against a murder charge, while battling an evil, corporate monolith. The book maintains a frantic pace which retains the reader’s attention but the plot is unnecessarily complicated (ie: the introduction of genetic engineering, a chimera character, cold war relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the result of an unplanned pregnancy). Unfortunately, some of the many twists are unrealistic and unconvincing.

On a five star scale, this story is so twisted and confusing that I would be generous if I gave this book two and a half stars. This is apparently the author's first book and at times, it shows.

As with all my literary ramblings, this is just my five cents worth.

This novel has an interesting storyline that develops nicely. The lead character starts out as someone who hs "decided" to occupy the bottom, least-demanding rung, in his profession....even though he is Ivy League educated. There are hints of a secret in his past, yet the momentum of the storyiine keeps the reader interested while at the same time, wondering at his professional choice. This is a kind of mystery within a mystery and is well done. Recommended......

I pushed myself all the way to the halfway point. I really tried. I feel bad DNFing an ARC, but this was a lot of words for nothing.

Yeah some people died in this thriller and there’s a mystery in there somewhere. But it didn’t flow well and was not intriguing. The writing was very choppy, not in the sense that the chapters were short, I don’t mind short chapters, just the sentence structures and phrasing.

Yes I was only halfway through, but there were already so many plot holes I have no idea how they could possibly wrap it up in the second half.
The plot keeps going on random side quests that I feel add nothing to the story.

Since it's a few months until this comes out I was thinking I would maybe try to finish the last half of it eventually, but I've read some other spoiler reviews on other sites and I don't think the second half of this book will be for me.

I wanted to look up the author to see what else they had, because maybe this was just a fluke in their repertoire. Unfortunately, I think this is their first work? So that led me to look up the publisher...and well...that explained a lot about this book. Here's what the publisher has on their front page:

"Important books and media. Presented fearlessly.
Unwoke and unconservative
Great books and media should challenge us. Their ideas should be dangerous, groundbreaking, uplifting, and even upsetting.
At Roland Media Distribution, we present ideas in their pure, unfiltered form. Neither woke shrieking nor conservative handwringing stops us from bringing forward the ideas and stories that matter."

Do with that information what you will.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this. I am always grateful for the opportunity to read and review ARCs.
While this is not a glowing review, I believe honest reviews are important and should be shared.