Even though this complex legal thriller is advertised as Ben Schroeder’s third case, Murphy (A Matter for the Jury, 2014,...
A distinguished British solicitor brings action against an American professor in this Cold War drama.
As a younger son, James Digby never expected to inherit either the family estate in Lancashire or the baronetcy that went with it. Instead, James fell in love with chess and dreamed of playing it professionally. He settled on a career as a solicitor in Chancery, even after the deaths of his older brother and his father made him Sir James. When an article by Yale professor Francis Hollander accuses Digby of being a spy for the Soviet Union, he hires his own solicitors and barristers to bring a libel suit. As Digby’s legal team, including junior barrister Ben Schroeder, tries to help him clear his name in court, they consider Hollander’s evidence far too scanty to hold up. Even highly sensitive information from MI6 agents willing to pay part of Hollander’s expenses isn’t compelling enough to make Digby want to settle. Side by side with the legal activities is Digby’s narration of his childhood, his years at Cambridge, his growing commitment to socialism—despite his privileged background— his marriage, his membership in a secret society, and his visits to the Soviet Union to report on chess tournaments. At the same time, Schroeder’s romance with a young clerk in a solicitor’s firm presents him with his own legal challenges. Even though it’s 1965, the rules about fraternization between barristers and solicitors are still stuck in the 18th century, and Schroeder could face disbarment if he continues the relationship. That’s the last worry he needs, especially given the increasing pressure of Digby’s case—and the interest that MI6 and the CIA have in keeping his libel suit out of the courtroom.
Even though this complex legal thriller is advertised as Ben Schroeder’s third case, Murphy (A Matter for the Jury, 2014, etc.) doesn’t give him center stage. Digby, the real protagonist, will keep you guessing until the very end.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84344-401-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: No Exit Press/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An addictive psychological thriller.
When a mysterious novel appears on her bedside table, a successful documentary filmmaker finds herself face to face with a secret that threatens to unravel life as she knows it.
Catherine Ravenscroft has built a dream life, or close to it: the devoted husband, the house in London, the award-winning career as a documentary filmmaker. And though she’s never quite bonded with her 25-year-old son the way she’d hoped, he’s doing fine—there are worse things than being an electronics salesman. But when she stumbles across a sinister novel called The Perfect Stranger—no one’s quite sure how it came into the house—Catherine sees herself in its pages, living out scenes from her past she’d hoped to forget. It’s a threat—but from whom? And why now, 20 years after the fact? Meanwhile, Stephen Brigstocke, a retired teacher, widowed and in pain, is desperate to exact revenge on Catherine and make her pay for what happened all those years ago. The story is told in alternating chapters, Catherine's in the third-person and Stephen's in the first, as the two orbit each other, predator and prey, and the novel moves between the past and the present to paint a portrait of two troubled families with trauma bubbling under the surface. As their lives become increasingly entangled, Stephen’s obsession grows, Catherine’s world crumbles, and it becomes clear that—in true thriller form—everything may not be as it seems. But how much destruction must be wrought before the truth comes out? And when it does, will there be anything left to salvage? While the long buildup to the big reveal begins to drag, Knight’s elegant plot and compelling (if not unexpected) characters keep the heart of the novel beating even when the pacing falters. Atmospheric and twisting and ripe for TV adaptation, this debut novel never strays far from convention, but that doesn’t make it any less of a page-turner.
An addictive psychological thriller.Pub Date: May 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236225-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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