The Bomb Maker's Son: A Parker Stern Novel

by Robert Rotstein

Overview

A fugitive from justice shows up on Parker Stern’s doorstep, seeking representation. Ian Holzner—better known as the Playa Delta Bomber—is about to be arrested for allegedly planting a bomb that killed four people in 1975. Parker turns down the case, until the revelation of a startling secret from Parker’s estranged mother all but forces him, against his better judgment, to change his mind. As media attention swirls around the reemerged Playa Delta Bomber, a bomb explodes and other violent acts occur. Is Holzner the mastermind behind these new attacks? At great personal risk, Parker tries to uncover the truth, all while discovering long-hidden, painful realities about his family and his own past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633880443
Publisher:	Seventh Street Books
Publication date:	06/09/2015
Series:	Parker Stern
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Rotstein, an entertainment attorney with over thirty years' experience, is the author of the Parker Stern novels Corrupt Practices and Reckless Disregard. He's represented all of the major motion picture studios and many well-known writers, producers, directors, and musicians. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Editorial Reviews

04/13/2015
The title of Rotstein’s third novel featuring attorney Parker Stern (after 2014’s Reckless Disregard) is fitting: it’s an explosive legal thriller set largely in Southern California that will keep readers guessing until the end. After being coerced by his estranged mother (who happens to be a cult leader) into representing one of her friends from the 1970s—an anti–Vietnam War radical accused of domestic terrorism who has been a fugitive from justice for almost four decades—Stern becomes entangled in a deadly mystery that revolves around the 1975 bombing of a Veterans Administration building in Playa Delta, Calif., which killed four people. As potential witnesses for the defense are murdered, Stern must also deal with life-changing revelations about himself and his rebel parents. Memorable characters and themes that are just as timely today as they were in the ’70s help make this a deeply satisfying page-turner. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Irresistible. . . . Full of great characters, twisty surprises, and a charming lightness of touch. Highly recommended.”

—LEE CHILD, #1 New York Times–bestselling author

“Explosive.... Memorable characters and themes that are just as timely today as they were in the ’70s help make this a deeply satisfying page-turner.”

—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“I’m a big fan of the Parker Stern novels, and The Bomb Maker’s Son might be the best yet. . . . The characters are fresh and well developed, the plots are intricate, and there are always multiple twists to keep me reading frantically to the very last page. Put this at the top of your to-read list. Put the whole series at the top of your to-read list.”

—ROBERT DUGONI, New York Times–bestselling author of My Sister’s Grave

“High on action and plot twists…. A solid series with an unusual premise, and it has built a substantial following.”

—BOOKLIST

“With a hero chasing his own shadowy instincts and duplicity everywhere, this story lingers long after the last page. The storytelling is intense—the plot building layer upon tense layer.”
 
—STEVE BERRY, New York Times–bestselling author of The Patriot Threat

“A series of firecrackers and depth charges that go right on detonating after the defense rests.”

—KIRKUS REVIEWS

“The Bomb Makers Son is fast-moving with more than one surprise and enough moral dilemmas to fill up a law school exam.”

—PHILLIP MARGOLIN, New York Times–bestselling author of Woman with a Gun

“Law and disorder rule in Robert Rotstein’s riveting thriller where what happens in the ’70s doesn’t stay in the ’70s. A smooth story with a strong finish.”
 
—JULIE KRAMER, national bestselling author of Delivering Death

PRAISE FOR THE PARKER STERN NOVELS:

Reckless Disregard:

"Endless novelties, endless twists, endless complications, endless surprises in and out of the courtroom. Whatever you read legal drama for, it's here, along with a whole lot of other stuff you never thought to ask for."
—Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW 

"Stern is a wonderfully complex hero in an occupation that forces him to combat his limitations. And this novel's action really puts the 'thriller' in legal thriller."
—Booklist STARRED REVIEW 

Corrupt Practices:

"This is a terrific book. Just terrific. Robert Rotstein has come up with a fresh take on the legal thriller and he does a first-rate job. Parker Stern is a complex and well-developed protagonist and the story is beautifully structured for maximum intrigue and suspense."  
—SUE GRAFTON, #1 New York Times–bestselling author

"A tautly constructed, fast-moving narrative with an appealing protagonist.... This promises to be a compelling series for legal-thriller fans. Get in at the start."
—Booklist STARRED review

From the Publisher

2015-03-21
Defending an aging former radical who's turned himself in for a 1975 bombing proves to be a blast from the past for LA attorney Parker Stern (Reckless Disregard, 2014, etc.) in more ways than one. Parker can't well refuse to take Ian Holzner's case. Not because Parker's horrible mother, Harriet, who's called herself Quiana Gottschalk ever since she became an elder of the Church of the Sanctified Assembly, pops up out of nowhere to insist that he take it, but because he can't deny her clinching argument: Holzner is the father he's never known. Given his double responsibility as lawyer and son, Parker gives Holzner's defense everything he's got. He mends fences with his former girlfriend Lovely Diamond because she works at the law firm of dislikable Louis Frantz, whose status as a death-penalty defender Parker has to trade on in order to take the case. He labors in vain to unearth the trial transcript that sent Holzner's co-conspirator, Rachel O'Brien, who blamed the bombing on him, to prison for six years. He holds his nose long enough to question two other Holzner-O'Brien gang members: psychopathic Belinda Hayes, who testified against Holzner at O'Brien's trial, and lily-livered Charles Sedgwick, who's still doing hard time even though everyone knows he's incapable of making the bomb that was planted in the Playa Delta VA Hospital back in the day. He does his best to find some common ground with spluttering, self-righteous Holzner, who could pose convincingly as the client from hell. The result is a series of firecrackers and depth charges that go right on detonating after the defense rests. Guaranteed to appeal to nostalgia buffs who can't forget their activist days and fans of courtroom drama who demand surprise after surprise and don't mind seeing multiple cast members unmasked as radicals or undercover cops or killed off to provide them.

Kirkus Reviews