Joseph Teller has created one of the most unique and entertaining characters in fiction with defense attorney, rule bender, and decorum stretcher, Harrison J. Walker, know to all as just Jaywalker. For Jaywalker, a case is not just a case but a life and death struggle for his client and he pulls out all the stops to get his clients found "not guilty."
In Overkill Jaywalker is defending a young kid, Jeremy Estrada, who had been terrorized by a punk gang of kids throughout the summer. After getting up enough nerve to ask a beautiful girl out, and whom he falls in love with, the taunting and threats from the gang go over the top. Eventually, after taking his girlfriend out to a carnival, Jeremy gets into a fistfight with one of the gang members. The way Jeremy tells it, the punk pulls a gun on him as he is winning the fight. In the ensuing struggle the gun goes off and grazes the guy. But there's a catch. Jeremy has wrested the gun away from the young tough and by all accounts chased him down and put a bullet between his eyes at point blank range while he is laying on the ground, beaten. Jeremy says it is self-defense. The State of New York says its murder. And Jaywalk sets out for that all important "not guilty" verdict as Jeremy refuses to plea bargain.
This is one of Teller's best novels to date as Jaywalker, using his unique and unconventional methods, walks us through the trial and his strategies to sway the jury to the case his way. It is a legal thriller that is entertaining from the opening page to the last page and one that Jaywalker fans and fans of legal thrillers should thoroughly enjoy.
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