Told in alternating past and present tense, James Dupont's Shadow of the Corps is an exciting debut legal thriller. Former JAG attorney Dale Riley is down on his luck--unemployed, living back at home with his parents while trying to keep his marriage together and raise his infant son. Then, one morning, he reads in the newspaper that a fellow JAG officer was shot dead while eating dinner at home with his family. The officer was the opposing counsel in the case that ended Riley's military career--and it isn't long before the hit man who killed him comes after Riley.
Meanwhile, Riley's old friend from the Marines, FBI agent Eric Scholl, investigates a serial murder case with victims across the country. As the two cases move toward a head-on collision with no survivors, Dupont ramps up the suspense with flashbacks to the military murder trial that connects them. Shadow of the Corps maintains a heart-pounding adrenaline level, propelling the reader through the story while blocking out everything else. The action and intrigue are top-notch; the plot twists are well constructed. Dupont plays fair with his readers, with no pulled-out-of-a-hat solutions. Though there are some aspects to the prose that could have used another round of editing, this is still a stellar start to the former Marine's fiction writing career. Oorah! --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts