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The Conviction: A Novel
The Conviction: A Novel
The Conviction: A Novel
Audiobook12 hours

The Conviction: A Novel

Written by Robert Dugoni

Narrated by Dan John Miller

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

In this exhilarating legal thriller from Robert Dugoni, the #1 Kindle bestselling author of MY SISTER'S GRAVE, attorney David Sloane must take the law into his own hands to save his son from a corrupt juvenile detention center.

As David Sloane continues to piece his life back together in the wake of his wife's vicious murder, he also struggles to handle his difficult teenage son, Jake. Reeling from the loss of his mother, Jake's bad behavior escalates and his relationship with Sloane is pushed to the brink. When Sloane's old friend, Detective Tom Molia, recruits Sloane and Jake to join him and his son on a camping trip, Sloane sees the trip as an opportunity to repair their broken father/son bond.

But the trip takes a distressing turn when the boys are arrested for vandalism in the middle of the night and the local judge, Earl Boykin, hastily sentences them to the "Fresh Start" detention program in the middle of the wilderness. Jake soon realizes the facility has little interest in rehabilitating wayward youths, beginning what will prove to be a grueling ordeal.

Sloane's legal expertise is rendered useless in overturning the boys' conviction, as he discovers that Judge Boykin's power reaches far beyond the courtroom. Finding their legal options limited and their sons in mounting danger, Sloane and Molia will stop at nothing to rescue their boys...the law--and their own safety--be damned.

New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni is in top form in this riveting tale of risk and redemption.

"Dugoni is a superb storyteller, and his courtroom drama shines."--The Boston Globe

"Dugoni is knocking on the A-list legal-thriller door and can be expected to gain entrance sooner rather than later."--Booklist STARRED Review

"Serves up the perfect mix of action, emotion and courtroom drama, so much so that THE CONVICTION isn't just the best legal thriller of the year, it's one of the best thrillers period."--Author Magazine

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 12, 2012
ISBN9781611063851
The Conviction: A Novel
Author

Robert Dugoni

Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite series, which has sold more than four million books worldwide. He is also the author of the bestselling David Sloane series; the Charles Jenkins series including The Eighth Sister, the stand-alone novels The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, for which he won an AudioFile Earphones Award for the narration; and the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post best book of the year. He is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for fiction and the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He is a two-time finalist for the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award. His books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Visit his website at www.robertdugoni.com.

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Reviews for The Conviction

Rating: 4.152777824074074 out of 5 stars
4/5

108 ratings17 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    David Sloan, an attorney and friend Detective Tom Molia sons are arrested, tried and convicted, all within a couple of hours and sent to a center that is more extreme boot camp than detention center. When Sloan tries to use the law to get their sons released, he realizes that there is more than what meets the eye with the judge and the small town he presides over. This suspenseful novel is filled with action and believable characters and a plot that just wouldn’t let me put the book down. I was caught in both the fathers’ dilemma in trying to get their boys and the boys struggle within the center and the abuse they endure. I really had to see how it ends and the ending was more than satisfying; it was apropos.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I picked this book up I didn't realize it was number 5 in a series. If I had I wouldn't have gotten it, lucky thing for me I didn't know. This book was really good. It's a bit of a mix of both legal thriller and mystery. The only down side was that it kept recalling to mind an SVU episode.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent! And the reason I enjoyed listening to David Sloane series is mostly because of the story of course, but also because of the narrator and his fantabulous narrative!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent audio recording. Book was great for my long roadtrip.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really liked the book it had a few twists and would love to see it as a movie.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This action packed book is so well paced, building action upon action. Our hero, David Sloane, a friend and their boys go on a camping trip and adventure ensues. As I read the reviews, some believe it couldn't happen like this but, I suspect, they've never seen a chain gang in the South! The book is a tad long and I found myself wondering when the big climax would come. But, come it did and with a passion. David's new sidekick, a cop, contributes nicely to the action. Fine book. Good read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After lawyer David Sloane and Jake, his stepson, witnessed the murder of his wife and Jake’s mother, Jake moved to live with his father. Jake began doing poorly in school and getting into trouble with the police. He was sentenced to rehab to work on his addictions and anger problems. Sadly, he didn’t follow through with his obligations and was going to be sent back to the juvenile detention center. David convinced the judge that he would be able to care for Jake if he moved back with him.Now 16 years old, Jake didn’t want to go back and started breaking rules almost immediately. David’s new wife convinced him to let some small things slide and focus on major issues. Soon afterwards, a long-time friend and detective Tom Molia suggested they take his son, TJ, and Jake on a camping trip to northern California..That plan fell apart the first night. TJ and Jake went into the town, allegedly to get some snacks for the night. Jake’s real mission was to buy some cigarettes and beer while TJ, without knowing his role, distracted the store owner. The owner immediately realized that Jake’s ID was fake and not only refused to sell him his items but also refused to return the fake ID. Jake and TJ snuck out and returned to the store, broke in, retrieved his ID and stole some items including a gun.The store had an alarm system and the boys were quickly captured. Then the nighmare really began. They were taken into detention by the police and appeared before the judge early the next morning. The fathers were never notified and by the time they got to the court, their sons were on the way to a county wilderness camp. They could have no visitors or phone calls for 30-days.The camp was run by sadists who had no idea of how to rehabilitate children and teenagers. It usually operated at full-capacity and parents or the government are charged $6000 a month while they were held there.THE CONVICTION goes into detail about how the inmates were treated as well as investigating the background of the judge (the fourth member of his family to have held the position) and the story of the man who owns most of the property in the town.It also focused on what David and Tom went through to try to get their sons back.I was ready to quit reading soon after the camp descriptions started. I found the situations sick and totally unrealistic. But I stuck to it, confirming those feelings, but wanted to know how they got out of it. It had some interesting twists and showed character development. On the whole, the ending was satisfying.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Conviction by Robert DugoniDavid Sloan series Book #55★'sFrom The Book: father takes the law into his own hands to save his son, trapped in a juvenile detention center from hell. Lawyer David Sloane is desperate to get through to his troubled teenage son Jake. Still reeling from the devastating loss of his mother in a brutal murder, Jake has spiraled out of control and Sloane has barely been able to keep him out of jail. So when his old friend, detective Tom Molia, suggests that they take their sons on a guys-only camping trip, Sloane gratefully accepts. What Sloane imagines will be the perfect excursion turns into a horrifying nightmare when the boys are arrested for vandalizing a general store late at night while their fathers are asleep. The next morning, before Sloane and Molia even realize they’re gone, their sons are tried, convicted, and sentenced by the presiding judge to six months in the county wilderness detention camp, Fresh Start. For the teenagers, a grueling physical and psychological ordeal begins. My Thoughts:This is a story that we have seen in reality in recent years although perhaps not to this extent. From the very beginning of Jake and T.J.'s ordeal the reader knows that this is just going to take one wrong turn after another and hoping that justice will finally win out. The entire story line is one surprise after another. No one is who you think they are and after a while you have no idea who or what to trust. I will have to admit that I skipped some of the financial stuff...way more than this brain could digest... but had to give the complexity of the plot 5 stars. Good job Mr. Dugoni.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Troubled teen Jake has had a couple of brushes with the law since witnessing his mother’s brutal murder and ends up living with his step-father, attorney David Sloane, who is a high-profile lawyer branded as ‘the one who never loses.’ In an attempt to help the boy stay out of trouble they go camping, and are joined at the last moment by an old friend, detective Tom Molia, and his younger teen son TJ.
    The boys bunk together the first night in a motel in the little town that will act as the spring-board for their wilderness adventure. Jake robs a local convenience store after-hours and unwittingly drags young TJ into his misadventure. By the time the two fathers awaken the next morning their boys have been arrested, arraigned and sentenced by a backwoods judge with a quick sense for judgment. Think Dan Ackroyd in the ’91 flick Nothing But Trouble but remove any sense of humor. Both teens are sentenced to a locally run boot-camp style detention center, Fresh Start.
    When Sloane is unable to get an appeal or a new trial the two fathers make plans to find a way to get their boys released, no matter what it takes. When they start investigating the judge, Earl Boykin, and his ties to the community a path of deceit and greed opens to them unexpectedly. The boys meantime find themselves being used as forced slave-labor for the warden and being abused by a couple of long-term psycho inmates that the guards let handle their dirty work. It becomes clear that there is a force working with them, behind the scenes, and so the plan to rescue the boys is hatched, however neither tandem is fully prepared for the scenarios they find themselves in as the book rushes to a close.
    Dugoni will have you on the edge of your seat in an unstoppable force of energy that makes sure you can’t put the book down once you start.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I loved hearing Robert Dugoni speak on writing at PNWA '14. However, this book wasn't nearly as good as Mr. Dugoni's speech was.

    I feel like the majority of this book reads like old school 1980's James Patterson. Not that that's a problem, except the plot line is full of tropes and cliches. Not to mention that it isn't realistic.

    1/4 through the book, the feds would have been involved.
    **SPOILER ALERT**
    Now, at the end, we find out they were involved--but because kids were being raped like that, the feds wouldn't have left a sting going for years. They would have locked that "camp" down fast.

    It was a good, entertaining read, but there are better. The sort of book I'd check out from the library and never think on again.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The premise of this novel is completely absurd. Lawyer David Sloane is on a camping trip with his troubled adopted son, Jake, along with his detective friend Tom Molia and his son. Jake, who has been in and out of trouble with the law breaks into a General Store, steals booze and a gun, and is later caught along with Molia’s son. Without any representation or even notifying their parents, they are convicted for long sentences in a boot-camp-style juvenile detention center.There is nothing remotely realistic going on here in this novel. I would more readily believe that aliens could land and knock on my front door than what occurs in this novel. There is no way that a court system would exist that completely violates constitutional law in the way they handle juvenile cases like this. This court would last for about two weeks before higher authorities would come down and shut it down entirely, and debar the judge. A correctional facility like this could never exist in this country. In this litigious society, there would be a half-dozen lawsuits a week with the way they treat the children inside of there. Unfortunately, it only gets worse from there when the secrets of the bad guys are revealed. Spoiler alert – don’t read if you don’t want to get spoiled. For some reason the reader is supposed to believe that a micro brewery CEO of a multi-billion dollar operation would be willing to share his grounds with an illegal marijuana growing operation and then would risk using kids in the bootcamp as labor for the marijuana growing operations. The writing is subpar as are the characters. I would advise skipping this novel.Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I knew early on I would be disappointed, but I finished it anyway. This one wasn't worth suspending belief for. I know there are mean and crooked law enforcement officers, but really?SPOILER ALERT*********SPOILER ALERT**********A small town sheriff gets pissed off that his retirement agreement and social security retirement age is being changed by the government close to to when he was supposed to retire. So he makes a child labor camp and not only forces these kids to grow weed so he can start a drug business, but convinces a judge, lawyers, deputies and cops to go along with the plan. They railroad kids into the system, milk parents for money AND treat the kids like crap for no real reason except they are assholes. I guess it could happen, but it didn't ring true.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These two youths, Jake Carter and T.J. Molia are caught breaking into a general store after hours, they are convicted right away without legal representation of any kind. They are sent to the First Start Youth Facility that is run by corrupt individuals within the community, but the metamorphosis that transpires between these youths is enlightening.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you like thrillers, you'll love this one. THE CONVICTION by Robert Dugoni is a bring-to-the-dinner-table, stay-up-late, can't-put-it-down thriller. If you haven't read a Dugoni book and are hesitant to read this for that reason, throw your caution out the window. This will make you want to read his other books.Every time I got to a part in this book that seemed to be a place where Dugoni wrote himself into an unanswerable question or a corny incident, he writes himself out of it by coming up with an answer or explanation. That is, all except once, and I let him slide on this. One of his characters excuses his bad acts, including murder, with the very unequal bad act of the government: they took away his retirement package. It's not a good excuse so I hoped Dugoni would undo this somehow, but he didn't. But let it go because everything else in this book is a thriller the way all thrillers should be.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I picked up Robert Dugoni's debut novel The Jury Master back in 2006. I quite enjoyed it, but for some unknown reason, I hadn't read another of his books until I picked up his latest - The Conviction. (I know I've missed a lot of good reads in between.) Lawyer David Sloane is Dugoni's recurring character. He's known as 'the lawyer who does not lose'. In the courtroom maybe, but in his personal life Sloane has suffered some losses. His partner Tina was brutally murdered - in front of her son Jake. Jake is dealing with his grief by abusing drugs and alcohol and engaging in petty crimes that are rapidly escalating. Sloane had raised the boy with Tina. In a last ditch effort to keep him out of detention, Sloan agrees to get him sucessfully through rehab this time. When an old friend, Detective Tom Molia, invites Sloan and Jake on a camping trip with him and his son T.J., it seems like a great idea. And it was....until Jake decides that breaking into a local business in the small town of Truluc is a good idea...and he has T.J. was with him. Unbelievably, the boys are caught, tried and convicted within six hours and sent to Fresh Start, a local boot camp, for six months. All without their fathers' knowledge..... Oh, this was such a page turner! Although, sometimes I didn't want to turn the page, fearing the worst, but needing to know to know what would happen next. As Sloane and Molia work feverishly on the outside to get the boys released, Jake and TJ struggle to survive inside the camp. And I feverishly kept turning pages. Dugoni's main premise for The Conviction has it's basis in reality. Stories of abusive youth detention camps are fact - not fiction. I had forgotten how much I liked the David Sloan character. I'm fascinated by the courtroom drama and legal machinations. (And Dugoni does these well - he worked as a litigator before turning to writing.) But for me the best legal stories have elements outside of the courtroom as well - legal thrillers seems to be an apt description. Sloan is a bigger than life character in both arenas, willing to do whatever it takes to free the boys. He's the guy you'd want in your corner. The Conviction has it all - great plotting (with twists I didn't see coming at all), non stop action, chills, thrills, strong characters and a clearly defined good vs. bad dynamic that will have you on the edge of your seat and staying up late to finish. The Conviction can certainly be read as a stand alone, but if you're like me, you'll be hunting down the previous books in the series. Highly recommended
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A town and a judge that considers themselves above the law, or in the case of the judge, considers his word to be unassailable, is at the heart of this suspenseful book. The tension in the book starts at the beginning and continues all the way through. Loved the legal maneuvering and loved the fact that two of the main characters who would do anything for their sons. Many twists and turns, one is never sure who the good guys are and who are the bad. Very good read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This novel deals with sensitive subjects of rebellious teenagers, parental relationships and the hold that drugs can have on young people's lives.After a session at a local courthuse and Jake Carter scheduled for a substance abuse program, his step-father, attorney David Sloane, doesn't know how to reach Jake. Jake has been impossible since his mother died.David's friend, Tom Molia, suggests Dave and Jake join him and his fourteen-year-old son, T.J. on a hiking and fishing vacation.The first night, Jake and T.J. are caught after breaking into a grocery store and stealing liquor and a gun.The boys are given a quick trial in the town, Truluck, California. They are sentenced to the Fresh Start Youth Training Program.There seems to be nothing the fathers can do. The judge is like a character from the old west who controls the town. The police department is hired locally and are equally uncooperative.The training program might be a good idea in general but the more the fathers find out about it, the more the parents worry.We feel for the fathers and wonder what could be done by two men against an entire town. Sloane is the kind of parent many of us wish we could be like. He wants to protect his troubled step-son but how will he be able to succeed?Dugoni is a professional story teller and this smoothly plotted mystery is a joy to read.