As a writer for hit shows The Guardian, Law & Order, Prison Break, and The Sopranos, Nick Santora's work is already known to many.  With SLIP & FALL, the author tackles his first fictional novel.  This is one of the better legal suspense novels to cross my desk in quite some time.  From start to finish, I quickly and easily became caught up in Robert Principe's life. 

After graduating law school, Robert Principe opts out of accepting a job with a high powered law firm, and instead opens his own personal injury practice in the area where he grew up.  Business is not as good as he'd hoped, so he finds himself joining up with his mobster cousin.  The plan is simple, people who owe money to the mob are given a chance to clean the slate.  They simply take jobs with area construction firms and fake an injury.  Following their injury, they retain Robert, he settles with the insurance company, takes his cut of the settlement, and the rest goes to the mob.  Robert knows he is breaking the law, but he only plans to handle a couple of cases so that he can pay outstanding bills and set aside enough money for a child after his wife discovers she is pregnant. 

Unfortunately, getting out of a deal with the mob isn't as easy as getting into one.  It isn't long before Robert is neck deep in trouble, the FBI is sniffing at his door, and he has no idea how to get out of the mess he's in. 

SLIP AND FALL is an exceptional debut.  It's tense, action-packed, and filled with a likeable hero, even though you know he's breaking the law, he is doing it with the right intentions and that makes it easy to forgive his mistakes.  By the ending, I was slightly sad that my time with Robert was over.  I'm anxious to see what Nick Santora will offer with his next novel.