Brandi Reviews The President's Lawyer

Brandi Rintoul is my partner in our law office, Selnes Rintoul, here in Melfort. She is an excellent lawyer and a great person. I am proud to be her partner in the law. She also loves books. As I indicated in my last post, a review of The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins, she recommended the book and provided me with her copy to read. I asked if she would like to write a review to be posted on the blog. She agreed. Her review is below. I am so glad she wrote a review. I consider it a strong review that reflects her. And thank you for the kind words Brandi. I told her we should do this again.

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I’ve been an avid follower of Mysteries and More From Saskatchewan since the moment I googled Bill’s name and found the blog; the eve of my interview to become his articling student nearly a  decade ago. 

Sometimes I pick up books I think Bill will enjoy, and vice versa. I learned quickly that Bill does not like to know anything about a book going into it lest it form some sort of bias or expectation before he can form his own opinion. 

When I found The President’s Lawyer in the bookstore on Boxing Day, 2024, the premise immediately intrigued me. I did not read the summary and immediately put it into my cart, taking a page from Bill’s book. 

I tore through this book in two reading sessions over 24 hours. I sat in the comfortable chair at my parents’ house and let myself be taken away by the story - a bright, young lawyer with ties to both a former President and his childhood best friend has been murdered, and the former President has been charged.

I’m not going to trace the lines of the plot that Bill likely already has - I know how thorough he is with his reviews when he posts them and he had me commit to not reading his review before I wrote mine. Instead, I’m going to focus on what I felt about the book as I read it, both as a lover of thrillers and a lawyer. 

(Yikes; nearly 10 years post-law school, I guess I have to acknowledge that I have firmly established a different perspective than non-lawyers.)

When I started reading, I felt an immediate kinship with Robbie; I’m not a male lawyer from Brooklyn who had a tragic childhood, nor am I going through a divorce or unfaithful to my spouse, but I did relate to him professionally. In a profession such as law, you often wonder if you are the right person to take on a particular client or difficult case. 

As all of us have seen over the years in which we have been paying attention, it takes a certain type of person to become the lawyer on a high profile case and different yet for a former President. While the obvious premise of the story was that Robbie does take on the defense, I’m not sure I would have if I were in his shoes.

To me, Robbie is relatable because he is capable but does not always believe in his abilities. He’s thorough and rational and smart, both in his day to day and in the advice he gives his client, but the niggles of doubt about how to handle being The President’s Lawyer felt very real to me.

After Robbie is formally retained, the preparation begins. He is assisted by a retired partner from his firm. It takes some serious convincing to lure a Republican Jane into the defense room for a Democratic former President.

Jane is a spitfire; she has a keen legal mind and balances Robbie’s self-doubt. Another relatable aspect of Robbie’s practice! 

It is not often that a lawyer - no matter their fame or experience - would take on a case like this alone. The value of having a team of defense lawyers cannot be understated. For much of my career as a lawyer, Bill and I have worked together as a team on high-stakes cases that have come across our desks. To me, Robbie seeking out his mentor’s assistance and perspective felt right.

And I’m sure both Jack and Robbie are glad that he did.

As the work continues and the trial plays out, Jane keeps things on track. She is direct when she needs to be and is no-nonsense to a client who is used to being bathed in “yes men.” Jane and Robbie are able to convince Jack on various occasions to take steps that are certainly the right ones to formulate and present his defense, including the ever difficult question of whether the accused will testify. Without Jane’s perspective, I believe that Jack’s defense would have been significantly weaker. 

In this debut, the author, Lawrence Robbins makes his own career as a lawyer quite obvious. He nails a lot of details upon which other authors of legal fiction take liberties. A cross-exam has never read more realistically than it did in this novel. Stop before you ask one last question that could lead to disaster!

I am guilty of being a reader who attempts to solve the mystery or predict the outcome before the author reveals it.

Here, the writing made the story difficult to put down, often bouncing between the case itself, as well as expanding on the personal lives of our characters, past and present. You must keep reading because you’ve become fixated on a backstory or subplot that must resolve to your satisfaction.

I can say with certainty that everything is resolved in The President’s Lawyer - including the cryptic chapters full of dialogue between a psychologist and their unidentified client which were, without a doubt, the most unsettling part of the plot. 

There were two twists in this story that I did not see coming; the resolutions given by Robbins did not even cross my mind as I let it wander, trying to solve the mystery first.

I am sure I gasped aloud as the final pieces fell into place in the last few pages, and I definitely thought about the implications of the resolution for quite a while before moving on to my next read.

The next workday, I walked into Bill’s office and asked him nonchalantly if he would like to read The President’s Lawyer. I hoped he would so I could share my thoughts with him when we both finished, and I was thrilled when he asked if I would write about my thoughts for his blog.

While not a seasoned review writer like Bill, I am excited to share this book with his readers who would enjoy the ride, whether they have the perspective of a lawyer or not.

I’m happy to say that I rated this novel 4 out of 5 stars. In contrast, I was disappointed to learn that Robbins passed away at the end of 2024, and this will be his only novel. I would have loved to read more.

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The President's Lawyer