Fatal Trust by Todd M. Johnson

Ian Wells is a young criminal defense attorney struggling to build a Minneapolis law practice he inherited from his father while caring for a mother with Alzheimer's. Nearly at the breaking point, everything changes for Ian when a new client offers a simple case: determine whether three men qualify for over nine million dollars of trust funds. To qualify, none can have been involved in criminal activity for the past twenty years. Ian's fee for a week's work: the unbelievable sum of two hundred thousand dollars.
Ian warily accepts the job--but is quickly dragged deep into a mystery linking the trust with a decades-old criminal enterprise and the greatest unsolved art theft in Minnesota history. As stolen money from the art theft surfaces, Ian finds himself the target of a criminal investigation by Brook Daniels, a prosecutor who is also his closest law school friend. He realizes too late that this simple investigation has spun out of control and now threatens his career, his future, and his life.

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About The Author

Todd M. Johnson has been a practicing attorney for over 30 years. Todd's passion for writing blends well with his legal career, and his novels are drawn closely from his personal experiences as a trial lawyer.

A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Minnesota Law School, Todd taught for two years as an adjunct professor of International Law, and has served as a US diplomat in Hong Kong.

The Deposit Slip, Johnson's first novel, debuted in 2012. His second novel, Critical Reaction, was released in October 2013.

A third novel, Fatal Trust, is set in Todd's hometown of Minneapolis, and released in early summer 2017.


My Review

This book touches on several subjects, but mainly a murder and a thirty-five year old robbery. At the beginning we are not privy to where the money for a trust comes from, but wow you will be guessing right to the end. Then there are surprises abounding, and I didn’t see several of the things that happened coming.
The author has woven a tale that happens before the main character is born, but he is terrorized by part of it when he is nine.
We meet Alzheimer’s head on, and the author shows Ian’s Mom as lucid and then again in the capture of the horrible disease. You will love how they embrace Martha, but was surprised how often she was left alone, and we see some of what happens at that time.
Although this book is published by Bethany House, I was a bit disappointed that it really is not a Christian read, yes it is a clean story, but very little to point you to Faith.
Be ready to non-stop action, and some with their lives and jobs on the line, and you will have to read to the end to find out how things are going to turn out.
I received this book through Bethany House Bloggers, and was not required to give a positive review.