Andy Siegel is a graduate of Tulane University and Brooklyn Law School and a personal injury and medical malpractice attorney in New York City. His many trial successes have regularly placed those outcomes among the “Top 100 Verdicts” reported in the state annually. After sharing a trial story with a mom at his kids’ baseball game, he was encouraged to write them down, which led to the Tug Wyler Mystery series. The series consists of ‘Suzy’s Case,’ ‘Cookie’s Case,’ which was selected as a Conversations Book Club Top 10 Beach Read, ‘Nelly’s Case,’ ‘Elton’s Case’ and ‘Jenna’s Case.’ At the heart of each is Tug Wyler, a colorful, cocky and self-deprecating personal injury lawyer.

‘Jenna’s Case’ is about Jenna Radcliff, a teenager who is the victim of a cosmetic surgeon willing to put greed above his oath to do no harm. It begins as she is going in to surgery and has flashbacks of how she got there. She is a competitive double-Dutch rope-jumper who is self-conscious about being big-breasted and agrees to a reduction surgery set up by her con-man step-father. Instead, she gets a total breast reduction that leaves Jenna not only physically scarred but a shell of the bright and energetic teenager she used to be. Her scheming step-father will do anything to get the money Jenna has inherited, including putting her life at stake.

The client in ‘Nelly’s Case’ is Nelly Rivera, a young woman who, because of dental anxiety, goes to Dr. Grad, know as the Painless Dentist, who uses general anesthesia. Shortly after being hooked up to the IV, she stops breathing and is rushed to the hospital where she falls into a coma. Eventually she comes out of it, but Dr. Grad insists that it was an unfortunate anaphylactic reaction. Rather than drag litigation out and risk his career and family, he settles out of court but ends up being sued by the city for negligence. The money trail targeted Nelly who was recently set to inherit a large sum of money from her father’s life insurance after he died in a house fire.

‘Elton’s Case’ is the case involving Elton Jerome Cribbs, who was wrongly convicted of a crime. His situation goes from bad to worse when he is injured during a prison transport and left paraplegic. Now in a wheelchair, he is seeking justice for his wrongful imprisonment while rejecting any kind of pity. The City of New York offers him millions to settle but maintains their stance that he is faking his injuries. It turns out they were right and Tug is stuck in the middle, struggling to distinguish the bad guys from the guys and truth from fiction.

Personal injury lawyers tend to get a bad reputation and their efforts to get justice often goes unnoticed, until Tug Wyler came along. This is a fascinating series centered around a flawed, but charming lawyer who frequently admits his mistakes and schemes and simply says “at least I admit it.” His lies frequently catch up to him and he is haunted by his past but in his mind he does what he has to do. He has been kidnapped, assaulted, held in contempt of court and blackmailed into taking cases he does not want. The novels start with ‘The Unfortunate Event’ and are written in the first-person point of view of Tug in plain English and are easy to understand and follow. There is courtroom drama with details of the cases including medical backgrounds and insight into Tug’s mind and analysis of his actions. The characters are well developed and sometimes other cases are mixed in to emphasize how lawyers usually handle more than one case at a time. These page-turners and are recommended for fans of courtroom dramas similar to John Grisham as well as mysteries and medical dramas.

“It’s common to diss personal injury lawyers-ambulance chasers they call us. But just remember: anyone, in an instant, can become a victim. Even you.” – Andy Siegel

*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.