The Defendants

Thaddeus Murfee Legal Thriller Series, Book 1

By: John Ellsworth

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

"Fast-paced courtroom drama that makes the pages turn with its depiction of the American Legal Justice System, Mob rule, and the tale of one rookie lawyer who refused to quit!" (American Institute of Justice)

Thaddeus Murfee is 25, single, a lawyer of 18 months, and completely unprepared for the murder case that walks in. While Ermeline was passed out, her date carved his name in her breasts. Heavy, thick letters: V-I-C-T-O-R.

The guilty party is found murdered. Or was he guilty? Ermeline is arrested because she had motive and opportunity. She hires Thaddeus, who makes his debut defending his first murder case in this courtroom drama.

Ilene is a beautiful widow who loves horses. Ilene is introduced to Thaddeus one Saturday morning as he is caring for his own horse. She invites him to Christmas dinner. Soon Thaddeus finds himself in great need of her care, and she rushes in to help. Will her love be enough to pull him through this courtroom thriller?

Paralegal Christine Susmann, home from the war in Iraq, uses her military training to help Thaddeus put together the defense. Together they discover the dark forces behind the case, and Christine teaches him how to arm himself and how to shoot - a skill he will need. The suspense mounts while alibis fall away and the killer's plot is discovered.

In The Defendants, John Ellsworth offers you a courtroom thriller that puts you right in the front row to witness how murder cases are defended. See the politics behind all criminal cases and how love can grow out of the strangest beginnings anyone could imagine. In the end, Thaddeus is given a split second to save his own life. His reaction is amazing!

©2014 John Ellsworth (P)2018 John Ellsworth

Not as good as the first one

The story was drawn out and the narration cheesy. Stop the song song voices and put some umph into the dialogue.

Hopeless most all the way.

Well narrated. Good twists. I love this authors style. I walk daily so this is my entertainment. Author tends to really build the drama. I like that. Thad Murphy is becoming my favorite character.

Good Book

Kept my interest. Listened to it while on vacation 😊 I would recommend it. Enjoy it!

Thaddeus

The Robert Gresham books are far superior to this. I read all of them.

TheDefendents

Would hold have been have been a good book except for the narrator. I don't know if I can finish it. Such a shame for such a good book.

I feel cheated!

I listened to and rated an earlier release of THE DEFENDANTS in on January 14, 2016. The narrator was AW Miller rather than Adam Verner. Audible routinely allows new releases to replace old ones while making the old releases unavailable to find on the Audible website. Needless to say I will be returning this one.

Greenhorn lawywr

My only complaint is the narrator's attempt at changing his voice for different characters. It was,annoying.
The story line was great.

ordinary

Listening to the narrator was like eating the cereal box, no flavor. The story was beyond predictable and incredibly basic in it's development. It took me three starts and two years to finish it while I wait for an author with greater storytelling skill to come out with a new book.

I almost gave up...and wished I had.

The narrator was terrible. He over did the characters and sounded as if the whole story was a joke.

Picayne on all levels

Basically a poorly done telenovela. It's historically incorrect on legal issues / contextual events, fails to give any sense of legal system, replete with misogynistic themes and imagery, and its cloying narration is too much to bear.