Fifty-Fifty

Eddie Flynn is a maverick defence lawyer and one-time con-man with links to the seamier side of the new York crime scene. Kate Brooks is a junior criminal lawyer with a high profile corporate firm. They find themselves defending in a case of a particularly gruesome murder of a former Mayor of New York.

The big problem for both lawyers is that they are on opposite sides, defending, in a joined trial, the former Mayor’s rather badly damaged daughters, each of whom claims the other killed their father, both having been in the house when he was killed. Oh, and there is a 44 million dollar estate at stake!

With convoluted twists and turns a-plenty, a steadily mounting body count and tension you could cut with any one of the bloodied murder weapons, this is the fifth outing for Eddie Flynn. I had not previously read any of these, set as they are in the US, and worse, within the dysfunctional US criminal justice system. Time to set my own personal prejudices aside and admit that this is a superbly written crime novel where the outcome is certain… until it isn’t, time and time again.

Stylistically there are echoes of Chandler in the narrative with philosophical asides, forays into the criminal underworld and topical racial prejudice, not just against black people generally but specifically faced by one man, a retiring judge from the African-American community, from his fellow Justices and from the District Attorney’s office. The investigative nature of U.S. Criminal defence work is exploited, not simply to move the story forward, but to bring in some interesting and indeed critical characters.

Side plots include sexual harassment at work, blackmail and seemingly solid forensic evidence which has potential for some rather large upsets, especially when ruled on by a very biased judge.

As soon as the second-hand bookshops open after the current lockdown, I am off to stock up on the back catalogue of this really good and engaging author.