The Pledge

reviewed by Roger Ebert

A hard-boiled genre exercise

Kirkus sort of liked it, but not completely: There are no good guys, or gals, in this novel. And there's no mystery, with police peripheral to the plot. Instead, Johnson seems to be paying homage to and subverting the conventions of the era of pulp fiction at its seediest. There's some dirty fun here, but plenty of authors are better at this sort of novel.

Book-a-day calendar liked it more (breezy, enjoyable read), and called Johnson "one of our contemporary masters."

Both mentioned Johnson's Tree of smoke, a Vietnam work (Kirkus: After his award-winning Vietnam epic, Johnson takes a busman's holiday with this hard-boiled genre exercise.While his previous novel Tree of Smoke (2007) elevated Johnson to a new level of renown

John Turner, deputy sheriff of a small town near Memphis, confronts trouble in the persons of the sheriff's long-lost son, who arrives in what appears to be a stolen car, and old friend Eldon Brown, who is a suspect in a murder he does not know if he committed.

Conviction

Minnie Driver, Juliette Lewis, Peter Gallagher, Melissa Leo, Sam Rockwell, Hilary Swank.

Betty Anne Waters is a young woman whose world is shattered when her beloved brother Kenny is convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Steadfastly convinced of his innocence, Betty Anne embarks on an 18-year journey to set Kenny free, using state-of-the-art forensic technology.

Beat the reaper

Bazell, Josh. (2009). Beat the reaper. New York : Little, Brown.

Kirkus: The past comes knocking for a physician with a fistful of secrets.Medical resident Bazell opens his debut novel with a bone-crunching interlude between Manhattan ER doctor Peter Brown and a mugger whom he beats senseless, then treats for injuries. Brown soon confesses that his real name is Pietro Brnwa. He's a former hit man whose lethal trade drove him into the witness-protection program, where he reinvented himself as a pill-popping trauma physician. "It's a weird curse, when you think about it," says the killer turned doc. "We're built for thought, and civilization, more than any other creature we've found. And all we really want to be is killers." The past catches up with Brown when a terminal patient at the hospital recognizes him as the mob assassin called "Bearclaw." The patient threatens to out Brown if he does not work to save the man's life. Bazell's profane, hyperactive novel is readable and fun, and no fan of shoot-'em-ups or medical dramas can afford to miss it. Among the book's highlights is a riotous set of doctor's rounds that find Brown making out with a cancer patient, chasing down a wheelchair-bound fugitive and suffering a particularly vile needle stick.A wildly funny mashup between genres that makes ER and St. Elsewhere look tame

Capitol offense

Accused of murdering a police officer he held responsible for the tragic death of his wife, Professor Dennis Thomas implores high-profile lawyer Ben Kincaid to defend him.