Jack Collins’s upstart law firm is struggling to make ends meet. His solution is to bring in a new senior partner, a seasoned estate-planning lawyer well connected with the Greenwich elite. Unfortunately, his new partner is hiding a secret that could bring down the entire firm.

When Jack catches the lawyer embezzling funds from a millionaire’s estate, he thinks he’s uncovered an isolated crime. But as he slowly connects the clues, he stumbles into a far larger conspiracy involving some of Connecticut’s most powerful figures.

The people behind this financial scheme are ones Jack would never suspect. And they will do whatever it takes to keep him from exposing them.

Jack Collins is doing his best to rebound from his harrowing adventures in After the Fact, Jeff Cooper’s previous novel. Leaving the false glamour of New York for the comfortable, if mundane, turf of Greenwich, Connecticut. He makes a new start with Collins, Warren & Oswald (CWO), the law firm he established with two young partners. The only problem? Money coming in is barely enough to cover expenses.

Enter Tom Nelson, a seasoned estate management attorney with a lucrative client list. CWO brings Tom on in hopes that he can prime the firm’s financial pump. Tom seems to be doing just that until Jack thinks he’s caught his new partner plundering an estate. It doesn’t take too much digging before he discovers an intricate web of lies, deceit, and murder. Instead of boosting his revenue, his new partner may bring the firm crashing down around him.

Jack is an easily relatable middle-class everyman. He shares our worries: keeping his business solvent, meeting his family’s needs against real budget constraints, and, most of all, maintaining his son’s and pregnant wife’s safety. You instinctively root for Jack to escape the mess he finds himself in as he tries to minimize the damage to his home and hearth.

Like After the Fact, the reader is privy to the actions and motivations as the narrative point of view shifts from one character to the next. The reader knows each character’s plots and plans, but they remain opaque to the other characters. While this omniscience does not reveal the specifics of events, it shows what each character wants and tries to make happen. The shifting viewpoints reveal just enough to entice you to continue reading without giving away the story. There are no spoiler alerts here.

Events and actions are believable, even if they may occasionally be a bit over the top now and then. And if things are not going according to plan for Jack, neither do they always for the bad guys.

The Final Account is a fast-paced thriller/adventure that I can recommend without reservation to readers who enjoy stories in that genre.

Jeff Cooper is a law professor, lawyer, former Presidential candidate, and published author of both fiction and nonfiction. A graduate of Harvard College, Yale Law School and New York University School of Law, he spent much of his career working in the law firms and trust banks fictionalized in his novels.

Born and raised in New York, he now lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he has served as an elected member of the Representative Town Meeting, a Justice of the Peace and a Director of several non-profit organizations. When he’s not teaching or writing, he can be found on the golf course.