This time David Sloane is approached by Beverly Ford who asks him to help her win a wrongful death suit against the government for her husband who was killed in Iraq. Although soldiers are not eligible for these payments due to the Feres Act which prohibits the government paying for a soldiers death while engaged in combat, David takes the case anyway, especially after her reads four witness statements which are remarkably similar--too similar. He is targeted almost immediately by the Augus Corporation, a chemical manufacturer. Once he starts investigating, he and his family are threatened and the remaining members of the military group involved are killed. ( )

I'm glad I wound up liking this book. Local author - check. Met the author - check. Signed copy - check. Thriller - check.

Then I started reading and felt disappointed. There was an exciting prolog, but Mr. Dugoni had already told me it was related to the story, but not the main character. So it didn't engage me. Immediate shift to a courtroom where a trial is ending. Then some setup, some new characters, more setup, some flashbacks - large and small, more characters and setup and shifting points of view, did I mention the flashbacks? I kept falling asleep after just a few pages.

About a fourth of the way in, that all changed. The book became a thriller. No more flashbacks, except to 'the incident'. Few new characters. Nice crisp writing. Setups that seemed to be headed in one direction and then surprisingly, but logically, taken in another. Now I was being kept up reading way too late. I have several more of the author's novels in my reading queue and will definitely get to them. And I'm looking forward to his next book. ( )

Not as good as the first book but it looks like Dugoni is trying to set up the third a bit too elaborately ( )

David Sloane, the trial lawyer with a brilliant record of delivering justice to his clients, takes up a seemingly unwinnable case of wrongful death claim by a war widow against the government of USA. Little does he know that the case will drag him into a grand conspiracy involving the rich and the mighty, putting his own life and that of his loved ones in peril. Tenaciously, Sloane fights, both off and on the court, with the help of his ex-CIA friends, to bring the conspiracy to light while trying to protect his family from harm.
Robert Dugoni has taken a complex and important issue as the theme of this novel and has executed it grippingly. The lead characters, and the secondary ones, are well etched and intriguing. The fast paced action is quite exciting and has many twists that keep the reader hooked. However, the narrative suffers somewhat due to the frequent reminiscences of Sloane's troubled past that do not have any active role in the present happenings. Also, the legal intricacies of the case are a bit incomprehensible and would have benefited by some more explanation.
Overall, I liked Wrongful Death and would rate it 3.5 out of 5. ( )

The second book in the David Sloane series, it uses two hot button issues to create a masterful story -- the feres doctrine (military cannot sue the government) and military contractors, who supply the military with functions not available internally. There are lots of characters and keeping them separate is not easy. The book was well written and uses flash backs to tell some of the story. There seemed to be no useless details and it was quite engaging. ( )