This courtroom suspense, published posthumously, is the fifteenth novel by Coughlin, a former federal judge. Here Jake Martin, a probate attorney in a make-or-break race for partnership in a prestigious Detroit firm, starts as part of a team handling the estate of banking tycoon Augustus Daren. Daren's last will and testament favor his fourth wife, the sexy, 20-years-younger Elizabeth. The bank's president, Daren's millionaire children, and someone in Jake's firm don't want Elizabeth running things and contest the will based on an incompetency argument. Through twists of fate (maybe), Jake finds himself in a litigation situation for the first time, up against a mercenary defense attorney known in the press as the "Tiger." Oh, yeah, through all this Jake's heartless attorney-wife is suing for divorce, his partner-rival Cora is asking him on dates, and Elizabeth is wearing slinky black dresses to dinner. Coughlin's forte is characterization, which carries the reader's interest, for while the plot is well constructed, Coughlin lets the audience in on too much for anything to be terribly surprising. The verdict, by the way, is left to the jury, but readers won't be disappointed.
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