Kill All The Judges

This is my fifth Deverell book, another crime novel, this being the third in the Arthur Beauchamp series. Beauchamp is now 69 years old, a retired trial attorney of note in Vancouver, Canada, who is two years from his last stint in the courtroom and who once again gets lured back to take a new case, of course a case that should be impossible to win. While just as clever as the other four that I’ve read, there was a cumbersome quality to this one, especially in the first third of the book. I actually re-read the first 25% of the book because I was confused about what was happening with the characters, something I’d be unwilling to do with most other authors.

While Deverell is developing the story of the death of several judges, he also reintroduced the character of Brian Pomeroy, a younger and gifted lawyer, but one who is lost to the ravages of polysubstance abuse, narcissism, martial disharmony, and writer’s block. Beauchamp refers the case of the apparent killer of the judges to Pomeroy only to see the man come fully unglued. Pomeroy, a frustrated author, is lost between the story line in his own unfinished novel and the case he is supposed to be defending. His own characters are the very same characters that are involved in the legal action, but their behavior in his book does not always correspond with their actions in the main plot of Deverell’s book. And, Pomeroy keeps trying to spice up his own story by adding new juicy characters. So, it’s confusing, and when Pomeroy crashes and is admitted to rehab, Beauchamp comes to the rescue of the case and reads the manuscript, he too is confused. Some of the manuscript seems to be predictive of the action of the persons who are still alive.

Are you still with me? Deverell further develops the character of Wentworth Chance, yet another young lawyer who idolizes Beauchamp. In the course of the book, Beauchamp’s wife runs for a seat in parliament for the Green Party. Beauchamp’s 14-year-old grandson comes to visit and immediately inserts himself into the action. There is bawdy humor and tongue-in-cheek spoofery of the legal system. Try this author, and your vocabulary will get a work out. I’ve already acquired another Beauchamp book – stay tuned.