Reviews for Clean hands : a novel

Library Journal
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Chris Crowley, a junior attorney in Elizabeth Carlyle's prestigious corporate law firm, has his phone stolen by a pickpocket in Grand Central Station. It contains sensitive documents relating to an important ongoing lawsuit being handled by the firm; the information is so sensitive that the phone has to be retrieved at almost any cost. Elizabeth calls in Valencia Walker, a former FBI and CIA agent, who uses whatever means necessary to get her jobs done. Valencia and her team track down the phone but not before it switches hands several times and not before the confidential information is held for ransom under threat of public disclosure. Underlying both Chris's and Valencia's actions are secrets. The action revolves around Valencia's travels through the underworld in her attempt to locate and retrieve the phone, identify the blackmailers, and exact revenge. VERDICT High-tech surveillance and cloak-and-dagger activity do not offset the anticlimactic ending or the mundane plot of the Brooklyn-based private investigator and author's third outing (after Every Man a Menace). [See Prepub Alert, 11/25.19.]—Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

After a cellphone containing "hot documents" that spell trouble for a legally embroiled New York bank gets pickpocketed, the corporate law firm representing the bank turns to a government fixer with serious CIA experience to limit the damage. The mobile device contains texts, emails, and memos revealing that the Calcott Corporation has been illicitly funneling money to a shell company in Oman. Should that information become public, it would tip the scales of a federal law suit Calcott is defending following a failed merger. The phone was swiped—or made to look like it was swiped—from a young lawyer on the team representing Calcott. Faced with recovering the phone and dealing with the shady parties into whose hands it's fallen, Elizabeth Carlyle, the imposing but easily unnerved head of the firm, calls upon glamorous ex–CIA case officer Valencia Walker to save the day. A problem-solver of high repute, Valencia traces the phone to three hustling Jewish Russian brothers in Brooklyn. They're easily enough dealt with, but the same can't be said of their powerful Uncle Yakov, whom neither they nor Valencia want to rub the wrong way. But Yakov proves to be small-time compared to the hidden schemers at work here. An enjoyably hard-boiled yarn streaked with noir effects, Hoffman's follow-up to Every Man a Menace (2016) is a skillfully orchestrated effort that achieves its most outlandish effects with nifty understatement. It is a book of constantly moving parts and constantly moving vehicles, as characters race across New York City to avert disaster. Ultimately, the author is less concerned with the human cost—little feeling is attached to characters' deaths—than the long reach of corruption in the modern era. Crime fiction that gives chaos an entertaining ride. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

When a law associate's phone is stolen at the firm of Carlyle, Driscoll, and Hathaway, fixer Valencia Walker is hired to prevent the explosive documents it holds from damaging the firm. Valencia easily retrieves the phone, but not before the pickpocket’s fence copies the files and sells them to a trio of up-and-comers in New York's Russian-Jewish Mafia. When they show their lawyer the documents, he warns the gangsters to bail. But the lure of cash is too strong, and they attempt to blackmail the firm. Valencia, who is never off her game, shocks everyone by losing the blackmailers at the drop. Now it’s war, and Valencia’s team hunts the extortionists and a shadowy group that is methodically eliminating everyone who saw the files. Valencia, a former CIA operative, is an expert manipulator and strategist, which casts intriguing doubt on her motives and propels the story toward a jaw-dropping twist. Fans of Zoë Sharp’s Charlie Fox and Chris Pavone’s Kate Moore will want to see more of Valencia Walker.


Publishers Weekly
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This riveting if flawed thriller from Hoffman (Every Man a Menace) revolves around corporate lawyers entangled in a contentious federal civil suit between two banks that has the potential to compromise national security. One morning in New York’s Grand Central Station, a pickpocket steals junior attorney Chris Cowley’s phone. Elizabeth Carlyle, the head of Cowley’s law firm, enlists the help of Valencia Walker, a former CIA operative and badass fixer, to recover the phone, which contains highly sensitive documents at the center of the case. But while Walker and her crew are consummate pros, they soon realize they could be pawns in a much larger, and deadlier, game of politics and power. Though the pedal-to-the-metal narrative features richly described and well-rounded characters (in particular, the two shrewd and determined female leads), the unconventional ending—thematically powerful as it is—may disappoint some readers. The impressive plot twists are a reminder that Hoffman remains a writer to watch. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (June)

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