Good legal drama

Good legal drama

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Good legal drama

The Gods Of Guilt by Michael Connelly Grand Central 450pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 325 baht

It isn't written anywhere that critics be impartial. We have preferences, this reviewer's being courtroom dramas. To be sure John Grisham reigns supreme, yet are other scribes who do it nearly as well. Indeed, two of my favourites — Inherit The Wind and Witness For The Prosecution — aren't his.

Unlike Grisham, fellow Yank Michael Connelly wasn't a counsellor before trying his hand at being a novelist, a journalist, rather. And most of his 25 books to date are crime thrillers, which have earned him deserved critical and public praise. Add my accolade for The Gods Of Guilt, under review.

The setting is Los Angeles, lawyer Michael Haller the protagonist, a family man and head of his successful firm. Lawyers and politicians are noted for being economical with the truth. However, he's one of the exceptions. If his fee is substantial, he has his household and office staff to feed.

Middle-aged, with decades of experience behind him, he knows every legal trick and keeps on his toes when verbally duelling with his prosecution opponents determined to put one over on him. Each side — for conviction, for acquittal — claim to be doing so in the name of justice, but both can't be right.

In the story, Gloria Dayton is a call girl/escort/prostitute found murdered, the LAPD arresting a man they are convinced did it — an open and shut case. Andre La Cross's unwavering plea of innocence scoffed at, Michael Haller comes to the rescue. His investigator is sent into the field, his staff to their computers to learn all they can about the victim.

A good part of the book is devoted to the trial, the judge a woman who sticks to the letter of the law and brooks no playing with it. Witnesses for both sides are examined and cross-examined. A few are exposed as liars. Several are wrong, but not deliberately.

The most important revelation is that Dayton was a secret DEA informant, raising the serious question of how the (Mexican) drug cartels would have reacted had they learned this. The assistant district attorney is no slouch and there are days during the months-long trial when he scores points.

There are twists and turns in the latter chapters, unexpected and not altogether credulous. But clever and acceptable. The title refers to the jury, who don't realise that the two lawyers they're watching are doing everything they can to play them like violins. Good courtroom drama.


 

Never Go Back by Lee Child Bantam 520pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 350 baht

Longer isn't better

Moderately successful in the UK, Lee Child achieved fame and fortune in the US as an author of crime fiction. His literary creation Jack Reacher, 195.6cm, 113kg, an ex-military police major, American army, a loner with prodigious strength, a bone-breaker in personal combat, hitch-hiking from coast to coast, solving crimes along the way, has captured the popular imagination.

He meets women who fall for him, but we are aware that he will love them and leave them. Peripatetic, Reacher can't stay in one place for any length of time. It's a stretch to compare Reacher to any other hero in literature — a bit of the Lone Ranger (but no sidekick) and of Rambo (but articulate).

Though each book in the series is self-contained, Child occasionally refers to characters in previous stories, giving the reader only a brief idea of his or her significance, probably figuring that his fans would pick up on it straight away. This reviewer has the impression that each of his books is getting longer. Not a good idea.

350 pages is enough to say it all. All-too-many plots aren't strong enough to carry on for 100 or more pages beyond that. Never Go Back is a case in point. The back referred to is Virginia, the headquarters of his former MP unit. He has visited many more states than most Yanks have.

What brings him back after his feet led him away? In an earlier story Reacher got word to call home. He did and was intrigued by the voice of the woman he talked to on the phone. So much so that he just had to see her in person. But when he arrives, he learns that she disappeared. Thereby hangs a tale.

The tale is complex, involving Reacher being accused of an old murder. Back into the service he goes to clear himself, only to learn that the two framing him — Romeo and Juliet — are far higher in rank. Drugs and child trafficking are involved. With the aid of his superior Major Susan Turner, named as his accomplice, his investigation takes them to DC.

Reacher's fights are graphically described, broken arms etc. Bodies pile up. The action dies down with justice triumphant, Major Turner returning to her desk and Reacher back on the open road. Following which there is the opening chapter of High Heat, next in the series.

To those who missed it on the screen, Tom Cruise was miscast in the Reacher title role. For a man who is 195.6cm and 113kg. Cruise?

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