Book Review Twice a Victim

• Publication year: 2023
• Citation: Vol. 36 No. 2 Pg. 50
• Pages: 50

Book Review Twice a Victim Vol. 36 No. 2. Pg. 50 Utah Bar Journal April, 2023

March, 2023

Twice a Victim

by Ralph Dellapiana

Reviewed by Andrea Garland

Twice a Victim, a legal thriller by Ralph Dellapiana, a trial lawyer and clever co-counsel; Kala, his client; Bella, his brilliant at the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association since 1995, is an excellent read. It has engaging characters, a fascinating legal plot, pyrotechnic displays of evidentiary argument, and an excellent portrayal of our criminal legal system as a blunt instrument.

In Twice a Victim, the question is not who-done-it but whether there will be justice after the sad murder of a baby. The main character, Frank Bravo, is a public defender assigned to defend the baby's mother, Kala Tausinga. Given the high stakes, Bravo attempts plea bargaining but ultimately must defend his client before a jury.

Bravo appears at first to have nothing going for him: he’s overworked, he’s lost everything in an ugly divorce, he’s assigned to represent a woman accused of killing her own baby, and someone has slashed his tires. Worse, he thinks his new client might be innocent. In real life that’s a curse because nothing good can happen to an innocent client. That person will...