Book Review: Confirming Justice by Diane & David Munson

Confirming Justice by Diane Munson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In "Confirming Justice" by wife-husband authors Diane & David Munson, who use their professional law enforcement and legal experience, create realistic crime fiction.  Just like in the their first book a significant Christian imprint appears throughout the book in numerous character's story arcs.

Unlike the author's first book, there is no central plot in "Confirming Justice" instead they intermingle two strong story arcs that from time-to-time merged briefly before once again separating before coming together to achieve a climax.  The two main characters in the book were both secondary characters introduced in the previous book, Judge Dwight Pendergast and FBI agent Griff Topping.  Pendergast's arc shows a fair minded jurist not allowing his thoughts for a particular defendant influence the handling of a trial, then dealing with health and family concerns before and during the announcement that he is a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Topping's arc begins with him attempting to find a fellow agent who is testifying in jury presided by Judge Pendergast then being asking by the judge afterwards to work on a private matter to find his long-lost older brother and while doing so stumbles upon a major drug case that partners him with former colleague.

Both main story arcs are well written and are the main reason why I gave this book the rating it has, but unfortunately other elements are also why I gave this book the rating I did.  The secondary characters in "Confirming Justice" fall into either one of two categories, well-rounded and flat, and are evenly divided between both which hurts the narrative.  The nefarious behind-the-scenes political intrigue subplot is unfortunately more a hindrance to the book's quality than a benefit.  And like "Facing Justice" this book has Christian faith, or lack of it in most cases, prominent throughout numerous character's lives, while this is not a negative in and of itself, the heavy-handed nature of it even made a Christian like myself think it was too much.

After finishing "Confirming Justice", I thought it was a nice second effort by the authors especially in terms of the main story arcs however it faulted in other areas which has made me decided not to continue the series.


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