Dead Even by Brad Meltzer

Book title : Dead Even
Author : Brad Meltzer
Publisher : Warners books
Date published   : 1999       Number of pages: 529
Genre (write one) : Mystery                         Book Code           : BRA/PBI/NV/0895

The most standout characters in this book are husband and wife, both lawyers. The wife, Sara Tate, after an extensive search for work has finally landed a job as an Assistant District Attorney (A.D.A) and riskily managed to steal a simple burglary case from another A.D.A. only to creat a huge conflict. The husband, Jared Lynch, is retained by the defendant. He was a loving and protecting husband. The case and client puts wife against husband. Both find themselves in a competition for their lives. They both were trapped into a danger situation. Sara must win or Jared dies. Jared faces the same threat.
I love most the part when finally they could identify and discover the truth of the case. Sara and her team were working hard to find this till finally they knew the truth. Their smart intuition, reasonable suspicion, and a hard work lead them to find the truth one by one. Combined with scientific explanation, as the doctor explained about the result of the autopsy, the story was factually described. I think it was beautifully smart description.
The part that makes me confused is when the cop said that they didn’t need fingerprints on every place there’s a crime, unless there’s a body, or it’s a big case. They also still think about the budget to take fingerprints in this case. I just wonder in a big city, like New York, does budget problem matter for the sake of their society safety?
There is a part that I found uncomfortable to read; mainly when Jared and Sara were fighting for real. Sara said that Jared was a thief and, in return, Jared said that she was a whore. I think it was a little regrettable part of all interesting part. This kind of fighting is one thing to see a couple fights when they are not sure if they still love each other. But to see a couple that still very much loves one another, in this case it’s enough to risk their own lives for the other, is something else entirely.
The background from the case is actually a love affair and inheritance problem. The murderer killed his victim in order to inherit his wealth. This case is often happened in our real live, especially in Indonesia. It even could happen between son and parent. There is lot of cases about someone who killed his/her friend, children who killed their own parent for the sake of inheritance or wealth.
In the first two chapters, it told how Sara get involved in this case; it was because she stole it from another district attorney. I think it was a bad opening. If I were the author, I would like change this part. Since she was a new D.A., she must do the positive thing to hold on her job. New York is a city with its competitive people. The harder you work, the bigger opportunity you get to win the competition. I would Sara get the case with her own hand to show her competitive part as New York citizen.
The largest issue taken in the story is about love story and friendship. The story tells about sacrifice of husband and wife; they are Jared and Sara. It also tells about how Rafferty was behind all of the case; that he asked someone to kill his own friend because he had an affair with his wife and wanted to inherit his wealth.
The story teaches me that it is important to be trusted and trust each other. No matter how often Sara and Jared get involved in fighting, but they still trust each other. The friendship between them and their friends are also implied about trust. What Raferty has done to his friend; killing him for the sake of wealth, shows that he was distrusted friend.