"Skin in the Game" by R.P. Finch / Monday, April 22, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

The University of West Alabama came upon a prize with R. P. Finch’s first novel “Skin in the Game.” This is a delightfully original and quirky book. Backstabbing deals. Characters’ high hopes with nameless powers and other characters posing as friends ready to dash them. The government. The mob. Bribes left and right in the form of false hope and cash. Lawyers, playing rainmakers, who don’t understand the first thing about documents they negotiate and sign. Revenge. Ambition. A thug wanting to create a theme park of strip joints. An attorney going nuts and seeing ghosts. The mob using the Internet to steal identities or break cyber codes. The government wanting to suppress information to break codes. This novel goes everywhere and, as a legal comedy, it’s one of the best-plotted dramas I’ve ever read. It’s so funny, you don’t realize how serious it really is.

The humor and portrayal of the law firm are the things that really set this novel apart. Author R. P. Finch is an attorney in real life. He must have seen some things on the inside because you can’t make this ridiculous stuff up. It’s a huge firm with huge attorney egos. While we in the general population practice common sense, this law practice – “practicing” because they haven’t got it down yet – makes and defends laws that lack any. I laughed at the absurdity throughout the book. It makes you never want to see a lawyer again. Literally. Not even look at one. Finch is perceptive, blow-your-mind funny, and his words – like the good attorney I’m sure he is – are all well-chosen. If you’re a fellow writer and the least bit insecure, within two pages you’re going to be hating this guy because of what he can do with words. It is wonderful to discover literary brilliance: that’s “Skin in the Game.” My only negative comment would be the ending could have been a little stronger, but that doesn’t diminish the gem that is prior to the end.

It took Finch years to write this book, and it shows. It’s a story someone has nurtured and changed for some time making sure he finally got it right. Finch succeeded. Let’s just hope he doesn’t take as long on the next one.
– Clay Stafford, author, filmmaker, and founder of Killer Nashville

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