THE PROSECUTOR

Judge Botein whose previous book Trial Judge (1952) presented the facts of the case from the bench here indulges in a fiction form for the working details of the prosecutor's office. John Peabody is the new district attorney and on his staff is the coldly ambitious, ruthless Edgar Bailey who invades the jurisdiction of others, who gets convictions before the grand, jury on many cases and whose philosophy of results being more important than methods puts Peabody and his office in unfavorable political and public light. Through the various kinds of cases, through the working of the legal machinery that takes place before a case comes to court, through the men and their jobs, Baily hatchets his way and the scandal that breaks sends Peabody to Albany for hearings -- which clear him and cut Bailey down to size. A guided tour through municipal law forms, this has its value perhaps as instruction rather than as a novel.