The first of fourteen Brady Coyne mysteries; the fifteenth, Cutter's Run, publishes July 1998 from St. Martin's Press. Charity won the 1984 Scribner Crime Novel Award.A legal thriller without a courtroom? A lawyer who's actually a nice guy? Here's the brief . . .The Lawyer . . . Boston's Brady Coyne is keyed way down. He'd rather fish than fight. When he's full of beans, they're from a can, washed down with beer. He's not partnership material-legal or matrimonial. Barrister to the Brahmins through a quirk of Fate, Brady finds his clients usually demand his personal, discreet attention.The Client . . . Elderly Florence Gresham is wealthy and whipcord tough. A realist, she's accepted the loss of her elder son to the jungles of Vietnam and the suicide of her husband. But when her scholarly, reclusive younger son steps off a cliff, Florence won't buy the coroner's obvious conclusion.The Case . . . What happened to George? His mother wants Brady to uncover the truth. She offers an incentive: a hefty percentage of the double indemnity life insurance policy payoff-assuming, of course, that Brady overturns the suicide verdict. And low key or not, barrister Brady likes to win . . . Read Less