RIVILEGED CHARACTER

Laborde is a court reporter for France Soir and his first novel was a Melo dramatically more interesting if no better written account of A Fair Trial. This is the aftermath of an acquittal secured only ""with the benefit of a doubt"", which leaves Montaud, a prominent lawyer, still considerably implicated in the eyes of all. He knows professionally and personally, for a crime which involved the shooting of another man in his mistress Giselle's life. While his wife Odette, his partner, his friend and even the police want the ""whole ugly business forgotten"", Montaud refuses to drop the case which he pursues through the dead man's family, his possible terrorist affiliations, his mistress, etc. until at last the hangover of guilt is dispelled... The tangled web woven is largely a tissue of tedium- and the reader, while accpting Montaud's objective, is less likely to share it.