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The Devil Advocate Andrew Neiderman 9780006510192 Books

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The Devil Advocate Andrew Neiderman 9780006510192 Books

This review contains SPOILERS.

I apologize for failing to make this clear!

This is one of those rare occasions where the movie is much better than the book. This novel is a mediocre effort. It might have benefitted from a futher rewrite--or three. It also doesn't seem to have been through the hands of a competent editor. The book's one real contribution is that it gave Taylor Hackford the basis for an excellent movie.

I suppose I should admit that I'm a fan of the genre. Satan, as a cultural archetype, has long fascinated me. Even with all of its flaws, "Omen III" is still one of my favorite movies. Unlike Sam Neil's tongue-in-cheek performance, Neiderman's book in unleavened by humor, intentional or unintentional. The author takes his subject and his book with a stultifying seriousness. A seriousness his slender gifts can't support.

Unfortunately, the book fails to meet the expectations raised by its concept. Its muddled, unfocused plot is one of the problems that Hackford rectifies in his filmed version. Satan as presented in this book seems little more dangerous than Bob Barker--unlike the frenetic performance by Al Pacino. The two characters have only the name in common.

The writing, at times, is surprisingly bad. The dialogue is often stilted and awkward. The Devil is named John Milton in a rather clumsy attempt at a joke. The author never refers to the character as anything but "John Milton" or "Mr. Milton."

The books protagonist, Kevin Taylor, is recruited by Milton's premiere criminal law firm after winning an acquittal from a child-molesting middle school teacher. His staid, Long Island firm's partners, far more comfortable with zoning variances and drafting wills, suggests he look elsewhere to continue his career. Having the Devil's offers already in his back pocket, Taylor leaves the firm and goes to work in Manhattan.

Afraid his wife will be reluctant to leave their cozy Long Island life for the hustle of Manhattan, he soon finds she's even more swept up in the big city's temptations than himself. But, naturally, all does not stay well long. As with so many possibilties, Neiderman fails to use the marriage, as Hackford does, to illustrate the price to be paid for giving into temptation.

Taylor's suspicions are first aroused when he begins having dreams of his wife having sex with another man while he lies next to her. When he awakes, she congratulates him on the great sex they've had--sex Kevin can't remember at all.

In an inexplicable plot twist, Satanus ex Machina, if you will, our protagonist, discovers a computer file filled with cases, two years ahead, of crimes that haven't yet been committed.

From there the book goes from the mediocre--a chauffer named "Charon"--to the implausible--all delivered in pedestrian prose with characters that are essentially interchangeable and uninsteresting.

Instead of the great confrontation and twist at the end Hackford gives us in the movie, Neiderman's book ends up with this razor-sharp, brilliant criminal defense lawyer stumbling through an obvious set-up in an ending pinched, and not cleverly, from the Omen films. He finds himself serving a life sentence, where the prisoners assure him of his safety as long as he helps them draft their appeals. Sent to the prison law-library he finds the prison librarian's eyes to be the same as the ubiquitous John Milton. And the writing isn't THAT interesting.

Finally, there's just little in this novel to hold the reader's attention. In a better writer's hands, the basic idea would have only been scaffolding for the story. Unfortunately, Neiderman presents us only with the scaffolding. He's very fortunate that Taylor Hackford took that scaffolding and fleshed it out to produce a very good movie.

Neiderman seems incapable of seeing the richer possibilities and gives us a second rate novel that lacks of the pacing of Grisham's potboilers. It's just a mess with some "diamonds in the mud." Unlike so many times where a film is unable to capture the fullness of the novel, "The Devil's Advocate" reverses the cliche. There simply isn't any complexity to lose. It's like a the pencil sketch of a painting on the canvas without the paint.


Tags : The Devil's Advocate [Andrew Neiderman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. After joining one of Manhattan's eminent criminal law firms, Kevin Taylor senses an unspeakable evil at work behind his firm's extraordinarily successful defense of criminals,Andrew Neiderman,The Devil's Advocate,HarperCollins Publishers, Limi,0006510191,VI-0006510191,Fiction,Mystery,Adventure thriller,Crime & mystery

The Devil Advocate Andrew Neiderman 9780006510192 Books Reviews

Excellent narrative. More of such work needed. Neiderman did a great job. Brilliant prose. Great storytelling. Needs more publicity. Kudos.
If you are reading this now then you have probably seen the movie. I am rarely able to say this, but the movie was far superior to the book. This was still a great book though that was different enough to be a whole new story. It was an interesting and still entertaining "alternate ending", but you will probably be a little disappointed after the movie. John Milton' s character had a much smaller role in the book without much of the A Pacino charismatic humor or epic speeches. But at least you won't have to deal with Keanu Reeves.
Maybe it's because some of the reviews were negative, but this book was better than I expected it to be. The book is very different from the movie in plot points but there are some common themes. I almost think I like Kevin Taylor better than Kevin Lomax (and believe me, I adore the film). The book moves quickly, and it's not particularly challenging -- reasons why I would categorize it as a beach read.
For the first time in history the movie is better than the book. Seriously. Way better. What a waste of time. I kept waiting for the clever twist and alas, waited in vain. This book isn't even well written. I don't know how it was published and actually made into a feature film. The screen writer must have done a heck of a job. Do not waste your precious time. Just watch the movie.
An unfortunately pedestrian - and predictable - book from which the much more famous (and far, far better) movie was made. I was so disappointed by this book, for the movie of the same name is one of my favorites, sly, snappy, and fun, along with the chills and evil goings on. And the acting therein is, IMO, wonderful - if far over the top, but that sort of film needs that sort of acting, I think. The film is very well-known, so I need to tell very little of the basic plot an amazingly successful young lawyer gets pulled into a tremendously powerful and luxurious law firm where nobody ever loses a case; what's behind the scenes?

The book is quite poorly written, with dull explication and little to recommend it; most of the best scenes from the movie were the screenwriters' ideas and not the author's, alas. No "running trail murder", no "naked body in the church", no magnificently salacious rendering of the growing relationship between Kevin and his half-sister, no bloody-wife-in-an-asylum, and no Mummy-"knew"-the-devil backstory! And the gloriously twisted ending of the movie? nope.

Most of the framework of the story is the same, the names are pretty much the same, but the characters are themselves quite different, not the least being that of John Milton himself - in the book he is an older, very courtly gentleman, kind, thoughtful, and soft-spoken. All the lawyers at the firm are young, energetic, and filled with life, and there's no secondary story of stock investigations going on either. But the book does have a God vs. Devil thriller trope that pretty much all of them seem to have these days (and that the movie, thankfully, cut out) - a renegade priest who seeks out evil and combats it in the world... or does he?

All the characters are simply lame, with no nuance, no depth, no charisma - a story about lawyers with no charisma?! Doesn't fly. And the pacing isn't that hot either. Bottom line? By-the-numbers attempt at religious horror, very mild, very weak, and actually a sorry mess. Watch the movie and enjoy its over-the-top-ness; forget about the book.
It was short, I would have enjoyed more detail. This is the first time I enjoyed the movie more than the book.
Boring with a ridiculous ending. He's doomed to set free hardened criminals, AKA the devil's minions from jail based on appeals from prison. Seems like a Twighlight Zone episode rather than a supernatural thriller. If you've seen the movie, don't waste your time with this drivel.
This review contains SPOILERS.

I apologize for failing to make this clear!

This is one of those rare occasions where the movie is much better than the book. This novel is a mediocre effort. It might have benefitted from a futher rewrite--or three. It also doesn't seem to have been through the hands of a competent editor. The book's one real contribution is that it gave Taylor Hackford the basis for an excellent movie.

I suppose I should admit that I'm a fan of the genre. Satan, as a cultural archetype, has long fascinated me. Even with all of its flaws, "Omen III" is still one of my favorite movies. Unlike Sam Neil's tongue-in-cheek performance, Neiderman's book in unleavened by humor, intentional or unintentional. The author takes his subject and his book with a stultifying seriousness. A seriousness his slender gifts can't support.

Unfortunately, the book fails to meet the expectations raised by its concept. Its muddled, unfocused plot is one of the problems that Hackford rectifies in his filmed version. Satan as presented in this book seems little more dangerous than Bob Barker--unlike the frenetic performance by Al Pacino. The two characters have only the name in common.

The writing, at times, is surprisingly bad. The dialogue is often stilted and awkward. The Devil is named John Milton in a rather clumsy attempt at a joke. The author never refers to the character as anything but "John Milton" or "Mr. Milton."

The books protagonist, Kevin Taylor, is recruited by Milton's premiere criminal law firm after winning an acquittal from a child-molesting middle school teacher. His staid, Long Island firm's partners, far more comfortable with zoning variances and drafting wills, suggests he look elsewhere to continue his career. Having the Devil's offers already in his back pocket, Taylor leaves the firm and goes to work in Manhattan.

Afraid his wife will be reluctant to leave their cozy Long Island life for the hustle of Manhattan, he soon finds she's even more swept up in the big city's temptations than himself. But, naturally, all does not stay well long. As with so many possibilties, Neiderman fails to use the marriage, as Hackford does, to illustrate the price to be paid for giving into temptation.

Taylor's suspicions are first aroused when he begins having dreams of his wife having sex with another man while he lies next to her. When he awakes, she congratulates him on the great sex they've had--sex Kevin can't remember at all.

In an inexplicable plot twist, Satanus ex Machina, if you will, our protagonist, discovers a computer file filled with cases, two years ahead, of crimes that haven't yet been committed.

From there the book goes from the mediocre--a chauffer named "Charon"--to the implausible--all delivered in pedestrian prose with characters that are essentially interchangeable and uninsteresting.

Instead of the great confrontation and twist at the end Hackford gives us in the movie, Neiderman's book ends up with this razor-sharp, brilliant criminal defense lawyer stumbling through an obvious set-up in an ending pinched, and not cleverly, from the Omen films. He finds himself serving a life sentence, where the prisoners assure him of his safety as long as he helps them draft their appeals. Sent to the prison law-library he finds the prison librarian's eyes to be the same as the ubiquitous John Milton. And the writing isn't THAT interesting.

Finally, there's just little in this novel to hold the reader's attention. In a better writer's hands, the basic idea would have only been scaffolding for the story. Unfortunately, Neiderman presents us only with the scaffolding. He's very fortunate that Taylor Hackford took that scaffolding and fleshed it out to produce a very good movie.

Neiderman seems incapable of seeing the richer possibilities and gives us a second rate novel that lacks of the pacing of Grisham's potboilers. It's just a mess with some "diamonds in the mud." Unlike so many times where a film is unable to capture the fullness of the novel, "The Devil's Advocate" reverses the cliche. There simply isn't any complexity to lose. It's like a the pencil sketch of a painting on the canvas without the paint.