Once, while between jobs, I attended a trial in Vancouver, and thereby briefly became a follower of William Deverell. He was very dashing and came over to kibbutz with us young girls.
A few weeks later, I sat in on the historically important Papajohn trial, where he defended Papajohn for rape and won using the defense of mistaken consent, setting a precedent in law, although a shameful one. I watched one whole day of his destruction of the victim.
Another degree of separation --- friend of a friend had an affair with him, which ended badly evidently, and was in heartbroken recovery at the time.
He retired and started writing mysteries and other books, based on his criminal law practice, and I have read all his novels and true crime books.
The Vancouver city and island settings and characters are good and always have the ring of truth (autobiographical I assume). His writing has improved over the years, most notably his female characters.
I find the plots a bit wearying but enjoy the descriptions of court and island life, and his descriptions of male/female relationships from the male point of view. The male characters are always hopelessly directed by sex, and even the best of them are clumsily doing the minimum to keep their women from leaving them. The women live with these weak rays of goodness.
Kill All the Judges is a good light read. The novel within a novel technique however is boring and irritating.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment