William L Myers Jr. pulls off a massive feat in A Criminal Defense.  Touted as a legal thriller, and scoring a 4+ rating on GoodReads, I expected to enjoy the book, but never thought I would love it as much as I did.  Myers manages to create an increasingly complicated plot with characters that are impressively complex and well developed.  While I am a huge fan of crime procedurals and mysteries, I typically anticipate to be more entranced by the plot than by deeply layered characters.  A Criminal Defense was one of those rare books that combines character study and domestic noir into a tightly knit, twisty thriller.  When I finished the book, I had the bittersweet feeling I always get after reading a book so good that I’m concerned my next read will seem lackluster unless I find another one of the greats.

There is a fantastic mixture of unanswered questions and slowly intertwined backstory in A Criminal Defense, so I don’t want to give much of the plot away.   The story beings when Mick McFarland’s old law school friend David Hanson is charged with the murder of a young reporter.  The police arrived at the reporter’s home to find her dead and David Hanson bolting out the back door, meaning Mick has his work cut out for him in creating a solid defense strategy.  What he doesn’t expect to make his job harder is David’s constant withholding of important details relevant to the case.  The longer Mick works on David’s defense, the more secrets he uncovers that make David look more and more suspicious.   As we learn more about Mick’s own dark past, we see him forced to decide which ethical boundaries he is willing to cross to craft an airtight defense.

Almost more impressive than the secretive, brooding and still fast paced plot is the fact that Myers manages to pull off a massive twist at the end of the story.  I know some readers don’t want to be aware of a twist, but I love finding a book that is so well written that even if you are looking for the twist, you don’t solve it before it happens – this is one of those books.  If you’re looking for an engulfing thriller with multi-dimensional characters, pick up A Criminal Defense.