I am reviewing the thriller novel The Up And Comer by Howard Roughan which is an excellent story which I bought from a local secondhand bookstore. Howard has co written various novels with James Patterson and does seem like a pretty good thriller writer. This novel isn't that different to the kind of thing Patterson writes. The book plays with your emotions quite skilfully and the key character who is an up and coming lawyer in a successful firm, hence the title, does starts off as not very likable but I did find myself feeling sorry for him by the end of the book although perhaps justifiably there is a bitter sweet ending. It's very skilfully written and it does seem a shame it hasn't reached a more mainstream audience. The plot is a lawyer in a successful firm who is married to the bosses daughter is having an affair with the bosses wife who he is meant to be defending on a driving whilst under the influence charge. Then an ex friend of his comes back in his life and has snaps of him and the bosses wife that incriminate him. He wants a $100,000 to keep quiet and threatens this bloke and refuses to pay up. In the meantime he joins a poker circle with some friends and cleans up with lots of money, he gets $3,000 alone when he joins the group but it makes sense to pay the ex friend to stay quiet especially when he discovers he knows his boss. Anyway by a twist of circumstances he ends up killing the ex friend more in manslaughter than murder but makes it look like a robbery gone wrong. At this point his whole starts to come apart and the police are hot on his trail. I really enjoyed this book and it definitely keeps your interest throughout.